Anadu Kune 668 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 "Oh noes dave polsky wrote the next episode! Its garanteed to be bad!" "Hes such a talentless hack, every episode hes written is bad!" Ive been seeing this for the past few days and it needs to stop now. You cant prejudge an episode by its writter each writter's performance can vary by episode. Sometimes they knock it out of the park, other times not so much. The bashing and antagonistic behavior towards this writter is second only to MWW. Though none of his episodes are in my top ten(perhaps with the exception of Too Many Pinkie Pies), I dont see them as being the wretched horrors others seem to perceive them as. It is a bad practice and puts a negative bias toward the episode before you have seen it. This needs to stop. 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veylon 255 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 It's not the writer who has me worried, it's the premise. Writing a story where you-know-who is brought in for therapy is more like defusing a bomb than making art. I hold no great hope for this one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radiance64 7,051 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 I thought more people were like this with Merriwhether Williams(who is amazing imo). Honestly though, it doesn't matter who writes an episode to me, each of the writers on the show has written at least one of my favorite episodes, so they're all good to me. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anadu Kune 668 December 31, 2012 Author Share December 31, 2012 It's not the writer who has me worried, it's the premise. Writing a story where you-know-who is brought in for therapy is more like defusing a bomb than making art. I hold no great hope for this one. It is something that needs to be handled just right. However as I have mentioned before it has been done with the character you-know who is based on, and it was done well. To be honest Im extremely interested to see where this will leave us in the season finale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dusty Soul 2,611 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 Honestly, it doesn't matter to me who wrote the episode all the writers have their ups and downs. IMO all the writers are very good at what they do. All of them have at least made 1 episode that is in my top 10. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batbrony 15,994 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 (edited) I don't follow too much either who writes any of the episodes, and I too don't like it when someponies become too obsessed with particular writers. I think that it might have something to do with the way Spongebob declined, because towards the end of its golden days, as I recall, certain writers that the fans loathed began writing more and more of the episodes, so maybe someponies who once watched Spongebob are just being paranoid and looking for a negative figure to latch onto. This is all purely speculation, but hey, it's the only way I can make sense of why some ponies dislike Polsky and Williams soooooo much. I mean, c'mon guys, compared to some of the tripe that shows like Spongebob produce these days, even MLP's so-called "worst" episodes are pretty darn good. Just keep calm and brony on everypony, these writers at Studio B know what they're doing. Edited December 31, 2012 by Batbrony 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kirbyboi 587 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 Hmph...don't really know much about each writer for each episode. Nor do I pay attention to them (didn't even know there were different writers for certain episodes ) But I don't wouldn't make a prejudgment just because of the writer that has been rumored to make bad episodes. I'm sure it'll be really good, just as the previous ones. Don't know why people are judging just by the writer. We'll have to see. The writers are all trying their best, and I'm sure this episode will be a good one! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Megas 27,064 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 I never got all of the hate Polsky got to begin with I've loved most of his episodes. What was it that people hated again? Something ridiculous like attacking athiests? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tall_But_Short_37 233 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 I never got all of the hate Polsky got to begin with I've loved most of his episodes. What was it that people hated again? Something ridiculous like attacking athiests? The message at the end of Feeling Pinkie Keen was kind of jumbled and vague and could be interpreted (by myself as well originally) as supporting faith-based religions. This is Lauren Faust trying to clarify: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantankerous 106 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 (edited) Feeling Pinkie Keen and Over a Barrel are awful episodes. Yes, I read your defense of Feeling Pinkie Keen and no, it wasn't convincing. Polsky's best episode is Too Many Pinkie Pies which is only decent. Of all the writers the show has had, he's the worst. It is a bad practice and puts a negative bias toward the episode before you have seen it. This needs to stop. This is why I intentionally divert my eyes every time an episode's credits appear and it says who wrote an episode. It's only after I've watched the episode I look up who wrote it. Admittedly, I did accidentally spoil it for myself who wrote the next episode. I'm not happy. I never got all of the hate Polsky got to begin with I've loved most of his episodes. What was it that people hated again? Something ridiculous like attacking athiests? Read this: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2012/01/my-little-pony-reality-is-magic.html Edited December 31, 2012 by ByTheTides Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tall_But_Short_37 233 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 Feeling Pinkie Keen and Over a Barrel are awful episodes. Yes, I read your defense of Feeling Pinkie Keen and no, it wasn't convincing. Polsky's best episode is Too Many Pinkie Pies which is only decent. Of all the writers the show has had, he's the worst. I liked Over a Barrel... Could you explain why you think it's awful? Read this: http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2012/01/my-little-pony-reality-is-magic.html See my above post... The message was not supposed to speak against critical thinking and reason, it's just been misunderstood. Also: http://mlpforums.com/topic/41798-this-episode-is-terriblewhy-it-isnt-2-feeling-pinkie-keen/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veylon 255 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 It is something that needs to be handled just right. However as I have mentioned before it has been done with the character you-know who is based on, and it was done well. To be honest Im extremely interested to see where this will leave us in the season finale. I started to make a snooty comment about how much more mature TNG is and how naturally an adult show would handle character development much better and how you couldn't really apply that to this. Then I remembered that TNG had it's fair share of botching (including Q) and I rethought that. It really is something that's liable to turn into a conceptual trainwreck if mishandled, though. I'm looking forward to this with the same dread that I looked forward to the wedding with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anadu Kune 668 December 31, 2012 Author Share December 31, 2012 (edited) I liked Over a Barrel... Could you explain why you think it's awful? See my above post... The message was not supposed to speak against critical thinking and reason, it's just been misunderstood. Also: http://mlpforums.com/topic/41798-this-episode-is-terriblewhy-it-isnt-2-feeling-pinkie-keen/ Same here with Over a Barrel, Its not in my top ten but its not awful. I think it handled its storyline better then some of its recent Hollywood counterparts...cough...Avatar...cough. I doubt anything you say will waver him from his position as he stated it as a given fact that they were awful episodes. Not "I think those episodes were bad" or "Those are my least favorite episodes" no "Those are awful episodes". Its statements like that for which I write segments like that of which you linked. In my view its the worst kind of criticism as it immediately assumes objective lack of quality on the whole without stating why. In essence its a sound bite meant to sway opinion immediately to one direction. On further reflection and discussion among friends it would seem the big problem people have is two words faith and belief. Those words as Faust said do not only apply to religion, and whether people want to believe it or not belief is involved in science as even a cursory look at its history will indicate. Edited December 31, 2012 by Anadu Kune 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rarietty 632 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 (edited) I've liked all of Dave Polsky's episodes so far, so I don't care. Yes, he wrote both Feeling Pinkie Keen and Over a Barrel, which are probably the 2 most controversial episodes. People claim that Feeling Pinkie Keen has religious subtexts and many believe that Over a Barrel was bordering on racism, so those episodes tend to get a lot of hate. They may not be bad episodes quality wise, but a lot of people just got somewhat offended by them. Enough said. I could rant on and on about this, but I'll just shut up about it. Even so, IMO he's the best Pinkie Pie writer and is one of the funniest writers as well. Considering the next episode focuses on Discord, I doubt we'll have nothing to worry about. Polsky will probably make it hilarious. I still think there would be a bigger uproar if Merriwether wrote the next episode... Edited December 31, 2012 by Rarietty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoniesPlease 365 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 Hold on. They aren't giving Discord therapy, more like it's a prologue for Discord's escape and chaotic return. It's the start of a saga that'll end the series! Epic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
notdog1996 315 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 I don't care who wrote what, I just watch the episode without noticing it. Though, I was certain Williams was the most hated writer on the team. Granted her first episode wasn't that good but I think all the others she wrote were awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batbrony 15,994 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 (edited) On further reflection and discussion among friends it would seem the big problem people have is two words faith and belief. Those words as Faust said do not only apply to religion, and whether people want to believe it or not belief is involved in science as even a cursory look at its history will indicate. Yeah, not gonna lie, I've never understood the dislike, or sometimes outright loathing, that someponies have for "Feeling Pinkie Keen". I guess I'm partially biased, seeing as I am a conservative Christian, so I actually appreciate whatever subtexts in the message that can apply to religion there are in that episode, but still, I think the message is a good one for anypony. As you and Faust pointed out, faith and belief DON'T just have to apply to religious belief and faith. It can be faith in a people's character or integrity, faith in the historical interpretation of some event, heck, even faith in a scientific theory! The whole point of the episode is, realistically, we cannot perfectly rationally explain EVERYTHING there is out there to know or learn through critical reason. We simply can't, it's just not possible; we're humans, and as history has shown, we're hardly perfect! Now, does that mean that that episode, or myself for that matter, advocate blind, fundamentalist faith in anything, including religious beliefs. Heck no; I think we should try to understand and explain as much as we can through natural reason and critical thinking, including whatever religious beliefs any of us hold, and I think the episode advocates the same thing. Only conflict ensues from blindly believing in something without any reason to; the difference in the episode being, they're presented with something that clearly happens too often to be coincidence (i.e. Pinkie's Pinkie Sense) and yet can't explain it, so simply have to have faith in it. It's the equivalent of what the first humans were presented with in the sun and the moon; could they explain at the time why the sun and the moon appeared in the sky. No, but that didn't mean they weren't there, so the earliest humans had to simply accept that the sun and the moon were there without knowing how (a bit of a bad example, considering the sun and the moon ultimately proved explainable, but I think you guys get my point). Point is, faith and belief are kind of a part of life, whether in religion, science, history, our relations with other people, or even in the foundation of our community, moral beliefs, or civil laws, and that's what I really think "Feeling Pinkie Keen" was going for. It's why it has to date one of my favorite messages of any of MLP's episodes, since I for one found it to be unique, deep, and quite unusual for a children's show. Edited December 31, 2012 by Batbrony 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anadu Kune 668 December 31, 2012 Author Share December 31, 2012 Yeah, not gonna lie, I've never understood the dislike, or sometimes outright loathing, that someponies have for "Feeling Pinkie Keen". I guess I'm partially biased, seeing as I am a conservative Christian, so I actually appreciate whatever subtexts in the message that can apply to religion there are in that episode, but still, I think the message is a good one for anypony. As you and Faust pointed out, faith and belief DON'T just have to apply to religious belief and faith. It can be faith in a people's character or integrity, faith in the historical interpretation of some event, heck, even faith in a scientific theory! The whole point of the episode is, realistically, we cannot perfectly rationally explain EVERYTHING there is out there to know or learn through critical reason. We simply can't, it's just not possible; we're humans, and as history has shown, hardly perfect! Now, does that mean that that episode, or myself for that matter, advocate blind, fundamentalist faith in anything, including religious beliefs. Heck no; I think we should try to understand and explain as much as we can through natural reason and critical thinking, including whatever religious beliefs any of us hold, and I think the episode advocates the same thing. Only conflict ensues from blindly believing in something without any reason to; the difference in the episode being, they're presented with something that clearly happens too often to be coincidence (i.e. Pinkie's Pinkie Sense) and yet can't explain it, so simply have to have faith in it. It's the equivalent of what the first humans were presented with in the sun and the moon; could they explain at the time why the sun and the moon appeared in the sky. No, but that didn't mean they weren't there, so the earliest humans had to simply accept that the sun and the moon were there without knowing how (a bit of a bad example, considering the sun and the moon ultimately proved explainable, but I think you guys get my point). Point is, faith and belief are kind of a part of life, whether in religion, science, history, our relations with other people, or even in the foundation of our community, moral beliefs, or civil laws, and that's what I really think "Feeling Pinkie Keen" was going for. It's why it has to date one of my favorite messages of any of MLP's episodes, since I for one found it to be unique, deep, and quite unusua for a children's show. Excellently said. I couldnt agree more. While not my favorite of episodes it does I think paint a more realistic picture of how things happen in reality with these kind of things. I think Polsky tends to take the more complicated/contraversal ideas, that many adult programs try to tackle. It may not translate perfectly all the time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Batbrony 15,994 December 31, 2012 Share December 31, 2012 (edited) Excellently said. I couldnt agree more. While not my favorite of episodes it does I think paint a more realistic picture of how things happen in reality with these kind of things. I think Polsky tends to take the more complicated/contraversal ideas, that many adult programs try to tackle. It may not translate perfectly all the time. Good point! In some ways, it's like Polsky is very ambitious, perhaps even too ambitious, in the complicated messages he tries to tackle, and sometimes story-wise it does hurt the execution of his episodes, simply because he's trying to do all of this in a 22 minute episode, no small feat for sure. For instance, he tends to like to employ "deus ex machinas" at the end of his episodes, and sometimes they come across as contrived and rushed. A couple examples being: (1) in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" the bubble that Twilight miraculously falls on that Pinkie just knows through her Pinkie Sense will be there (although the Pinkie Sense makes that a little more explainable), (2) the fact that all it takes is a pie to the face to change the chieftain's mind in "Over a Barrel" when, by that point, the two groups are in an all out war and tearing Appleloosa apart (mostly a timing issue more than anything, it just made it seem like it should've been far easier for these two sides to come to an agreement, although I do appreciate that he didn't cop out with Pinkie's song resolving their dispute, that would've felt REALLY contrived), and (3) most recently, Spike somehow taking down the Mega-Timber Wolf with a little, tiny pebble to the throat. Again, I get that it's a matter of time, and in some ways Polsky might just be too ambitious for his own good sometimes, but some of these are fairly weak deus ex machinas. Edited December 31, 2012 by Batbrony 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cantankerous 106 January 1, 2013 Share January 1, 2013 (edited) I doubt anything you say will waver him from his position as he stated it as a given fact that they were awful episodes. Not "I think those episodes were bad" or "Those are my least favorite episodes" no "Those are awful episodes". Its statements like that for which I write segments like that of which you linked. In my view its the worst kind of criticism as it immediately assumes objective lack of quality on the whole without stating why. In essence its a sound bite meant to sway opinion immediately to one direction. Gah! Really man? When a person says a work of fiction is great/good/okay/bad/awful/etc it's left as an understood that they're saying it has that level of quality in their opinion. That's common sense! About swaying my position, of course he isn't- not with the standard "But Lauren Faust apologized!" argument. Sorry, but that anti-intellectual message- the one stereotyping rationalists/skeptics and close-minded cynics- is still in the episode intended or not. What was the intended message is meaningless compared to what message children are going to get out of it, and that message is awful. Why am I standing by the position that this episode is anti-intellectual? Simple, Julia Galef's arguments are better than yours. Come up with arguments that can trounce hers and I'll listen. I'm a rationalist, of course I will. While I'm at it.... "Oh and to clarify, I am NOT, I repeat NOT trying to convert anyone over to my opinion. I do not wite these out of anger. I only write this because at least one person seemed to think so. I do this for fun. I examine criticsm of the episodes to see if they warrant calling an episode lacking in quality." You SHOULD be trying to convert people over to your opinion! You're forwarding an argument! Since I apparently need to explain this let me do so through telling you about an experience I had regarding mlp recently. I watched three reviews (by DigibronyMLP, Strebiskunk, and Brony Nutcase) of the season one episode Boast Busters and found, to my dismay, they were negative reviews and, even worse, they were making a compelling case against the episode. I don't know how I can defend this episode that I like so much. Their arguments are better than mine. Do I like admitting I've been wrong and that Boast Busters is a bad episode? Hell no! But I'm a better informed, smarter person because of it. They converted my opinion to theirs and I'm grateful for it. This is how discussion works, we learn for each other. Edited January 1, 2013 by ByTheTides Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mu Nova 66 January 1, 2013 Share January 1, 2013 (edited) I've never bothered acquainting myself with the specifics or particular episodes of the different writers. I might start, out of curiosity, but... meh. I'm not too worried about this next episode based on writer. Granted, I am a bit worried since I'm reading that this writer seems to be that of several episodes that aren't my favorites. However, I'm just fine with Feeling Pinkie Keen (despite that unintended message causing a little concern for my atheist mind, but I always figured it was by no means a religious message anyway--the message that's really there was a good one), Over a Barrel, Too Many Pinkie Pies... None of those have seemed bad to me. I might prefer to have a writer of episodes I'm more fond of be however much in charge of the handling of one of my absolute top favorite characters, but I'm not going to stress too much over it, and I have faith that there's enough healthy oversight to keep any bad ideas about what to do with Discord in check. lol Edited January 1, 2013 by Mu Nova Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoniesPlease 365 January 1, 2013 Share January 1, 2013 Honestly? I couldn't care less. It IS a show for little girls after all bronies. They can't tailor to our every want ALL the time now can they? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twinhead B 482 January 1, 2013 Share January 1, 2013 (edited) I just don't get why people think Polsky's episodes are bad. Feeling Pinkie Keen is one of my favorites from season 1, and Over a Barrel was actually the episode that made me a brony. Hell, Too Many Pinkie Pies is arguably the best episode of Season 3. People just need to take Polsky's episodes at face vaue. His episodes are very enjoyable (albeit somewhat predictable) when you don't pick them apart and look for secret messages that aren't there. :/ Edited January 1, 2013 by Twinhead B 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian577 120 January 1, 2013 Share January 1, 2013 The problem with using Dave Polsky for this episode is that he is best at comedy. As far as I'm concerned he does Pinkie better than any other writer on the show. This is a world building episode though, the kind of episode that M.A Larson and Megan McCarthy are best at. Larson would be preferable because he wrote the Return of Harmony and knows Discord best. This is also a Fluttershy episode, a character he has little or no experience with. In his last couple of episodes Fluttershy had very few lines and seemed almost dead to me. Back in season one he wrote Over a Barrel in which Fluttershy cracked a joke (huffy the magic dragon) and even jumped on Pinkie when she and Dash returned from the desert, behavior she is not prone to. Polksy does not know how to write Fluttershy and has zero experiance with Discord, this is what concerned. His previous attempts a world building have resulted a Pinkie's questionable Pinkie Sense, a couple of controversial morals and a Deus Ex Machina in the form of an unexplained book that has never been brought up again. He's a bad choice all around for this sort of episode. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stellafera 3,835 January 1, 2013 Share January 1, 2013 The problem with using Dave Polsky for this episode is that he is best at comedy. The problem with Polsky for me is that I don't find his comedy very funny, but he writes comedic episodes. I actually liked the moral of Feeling Pinkie Keen, but I disliked the episode because I found it unamusing and comedy was pretty much the entire episode. I liked his more serious writing in Too Many Pinkie Pies, though, which makes me curious as to how the Fluttershy episode will turn out. If he plays it for laughs, I'll probably find out what my new least favorite episode is. If he doesn't, we could be looking at something really good. (I think that Polsky is a better choice for the episode than Merriwether, though, despite being a big Merriwether fan. Merriwether I feel would do a good job on Discord and Fluttershy, but she'd make everyone else look too bad.) 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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