Would two-parter episodes make any differences?

[pinkiefan1287 610]

For a while I have been hearing people say that, Keep Calm and Flutter on and Magical Mystery Cure would be better if they were a 2 parter episode, but no one has given a description or told how it could be a two parter.

So how would you make it a 2 parter? If you had to make to make Keep Calm and Flutter on and Magical Mystery Cure into a 2 parter episode how would you do it? What would you change, what would the story be? Don't just say a 2 parter would be better and end with that. Explain how it would have been better. 

If you ask me Keep Calm and Flutter on, it just fine. They told the story they wanted and got the message across. 2 parter would be a waste. Maybe if it was a group episode and not a Fluttershy episode, but still that is what we got. Same with Magical Mystery Cure. I don't think we need a 2 parter episode to resolve the problem. It might have turned into a more of a complicated story and the message would have been odd.

 

Beside Crystal empire was a 2 parter episode and not a lot of people don't like that episode and they had plenty of time to tell a good story, but in the end it was not that great.

 

So that is what I think, what do you all think?

Edited April 14, 2013 by pinkiefan1287

[Rainbow Dash Loyalty 1,275]

I thought Keep Calm and Flutter On was only a tad bit rushed, but I thought it was still good as it is now, although Magical Mystery Cure would have definitely been better as a 2-parter IMO. They didn't have enough time to tell the story properly and made me confused, even though the flashback made things a tiny bit clearer and most of the songs did make most of the episode's story.

Overall they did do a good job on the episode for 22 minutes and ended it with a big celebration x)

[Dreadmallon 353]

   I felt that Keep Calm and Flutter On was rushed, but not enough for a two-parter.

 

   Magical Mystery Cure was just plain out rushed. Nothing was truly explained, especially the singing, and I overall didn't like the episode.

[Shanks 10,816]

Keep Calm and Flutter on is fine as a single episode, but since Discord is my favorite character if they made it a two parter I sure wouldn't complain. As for Magical Mystery Cure with exactly how much buildup it takes for a massive change like that to make sense you have no choice but to have a two parter, the whole cutie mark switching idea was a good one but it should have been its own episode which lead up into the two parter or at the very least was part 1 of a two parter. I know that season 4 is going to be a two parter which picks up where Magical Mystery Cure left off but you still have to give a change like this the proper time.

[Crispy 5,563]

Simple, really.

 

You watch Magical Mystery Cure, each of the ponies problems is introduced within minutes, and solved after one "oh no I'm sad" moment by Twi.

 

I'm not saying it wasn't a good episode (though it wasn't my favorite of the season), but an episode spent on the problems/an episode spent on the solution would have served the story better than the single episode format.

 

Obviously, it was kinda shoehorned in to fit the shorter season length.  I believe the writers wanted to do much more with the concept than the time constraints allowed.

[Dark Qiviut 22,431]

A very big difference. The biggest problem with both episodes is by how cramped they were. There was so much information compacted into one small space that it made the development, conflict, and resolutions in both episodes inorganic.
 
To quote what I wrote regarding Discord's redemption in KCaFO:

Keep Calm and Flutter On is definitely rushed in timing, writing, and setting. Discord has been a thorn in Equestria for eons, raising hell over a thousand years ago and then doing the same when the stone curse weakened and broke. He is a god and a villain with little regard for anyone but himself. He was crazy, selfish, menacing, and psychotic. In less than twenty-four hours, he went from an evil nuisance to a neutral, semi-antagonistic draconequus. Realistically, it makes no sense. For redemption like him to function plausibly, it needs to be taken much longer. At least fourty-eight hours and more than one episode. Furthermore, there was way too much content squeezed in for it to genuinely make sense. From beginning to end, it went from one moment to another without any time to relax and change its pace. The characterization and foreshadowing made the episode much stronger than it should have been, but the fast pace weakened the overall episode and made his redemption not so convincing.

And again for Magical Mystery Cure:

Magical Mystery Cure amplified KCaFO's main flaw. The songs were slow, but everything was all crammed in one twenty-minute episode (with some like I've Got to Find a Way chopped from time constraints). The conflict was resolved way too quickly, and the inorganic foreshadowing (a.k.a., the Twilicorn resolution) that was shoved in sped MMC up further. There wasn't any time to genuinely calm down and space the information apart so we can see and feel the characters in between the songs. The conflict, resolution, and consequences were brief and had no time to fully explore. Although the songs were great, it made the episode even faster because there wasn't as much dialogue to calm down the pace and space everything apart for everything to make logical sense. Not only could it have been a two-parter; it SHOULD have been a two-parter.

 

Expanding them to two parts not only would've made Discord's redemption plausible, but it also would've saved Magical Mystery Cure from being a headache-inducing, twenty-minute waste of time.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Dark Qiviut

[Pony Of The Month 534]

 

 

Expanding them to two parts not only would've made Discord's redemption plausible, but it also would've saved Magical Mystery Cure from being a headache-inducing, twenty-minute waste of time.

 

Expanding Keep Calm And Flutter On into a 2-parter would not have made Discord's redemption any more plausible. If it actually were a 2-parter, people would still call it "rushed." If 22 minutes isn't enough to believe that Discord is good, how is 44 minutes enough? If they really want to please everyone, they'd make it into a 3 hour epic. Than no one would be complaining about how "rushed" it is. They would just scream "I want old discord back!"

 

Magical Mystery Cure is understandable, but I still believe that there is nothing wrong with it.

 

Here's a copypasta from a post that Glaceon made in the "Crystal Empire or Magical Mystery Cure" thread, because this is brilliant:

 

 

I've read a bit more into the episode than most have, and I don't think there are any plot holes at all, not with the Apples not questioning Pinkie's presence, nor the trees losing their leaves then spontaneously regaining them, nor any of that stuff. 

 

The spell Twilight cast changed the ponies' cutie marks and destinies, not just their cutie marks. It changed pretty much their entire life stories. The Apples didn't question Pinkie's presence, because only Twilight (and by extension Spike) knew that things had been changed from how they were supposed to be; everypony else was none the wiser. Including those effected, and the Apple family, the patrons of Sugarcube Corner, and all that stuff. ((This is my headcanon, but I believe that it's a fairly good explanation of what's going on.)) The Apples didn't question Pinkie's presence, because as far as they knew, Pinkie had been a worker on the Apple farm consistently, effectively replacing Applejack in that role the moment she found her cutie mark, at the Sonic Rainboom. The same could be argued for each of the rest of the Mane 6 who were affected. The lack of foliage on the trees reflects this fact, as far as Pinkie goes. If you notice, as soon as Applejack returns, coming to realize who she is truly meant to be, the leaves return, as if they had been under Applejack's care the whole time, rather than Pinkie's, since Applejack's destiny, as well as her memory and personal history, had been restored. 

 

As Twilight helps her friends come to realize who they truly are, and who they are truly meant to be, she comes to realize this herself, and Twilight's moment of full realization comes with the knowledge and power of the final parts of Starswirl's spell, which grants her the power to become something... more. The concept of power from full realization, and my knowledge of same, comes from Avatar: the Last Airbender; only a fully realized Avatar, or an Avatar that understands himself spiritually (and by extension, in personality) can harness the extreme power that is the Avatar State with complete control over same. The concept is much the same here. As Twilight (an Avatar, if you will) comes to full realization, the door to her true destiny was unlocked, granting her a higher power; alicornism, much the same as a fully realized avatar is granted control over their higher power. 

 

Does any of that make sense?

 

It's a lot more subtle of a thing for me to explain, but the density of MMC in itself is an art. The fact that it makes you think it, I think, what makes it such a turn-off to some bronies. It's like the argument of a novel vs. a short story; in a novel, there's a bunch of meaningless banter that is out of place, while in a short story, every little action, every little detail means something; it has to, due to the short length, a short story is so much more dense than a novel in its storytelling and its intrinsic value. To me, that makes the shorter works; the denser works infinitely more enjoyable, and as such, I think the pacing and length of MMC were utter perfection.

 

Although his defenses of the plot holes are just headcanons,

[Orablanco Account 3,707]

Yes, all the story that needed to be told in those episodes were told economically, but there wasn't any room for anything to settle in and mean anything.

 

We know that Discord is reformed (sorta), but we don't really see his transition from being a complete ass to accepting friendship. We have no idea why that is suddenly meaningful to him.

 

MMC didn't set aside any time to establish a sense of normalcy before things went bad, the conflict's origins are told in flashback, and we don't get to see Twilight's thought process and deduction of the solution.

 

Magic Duel would have been even better if they had the time to explore why Trixie is suddenly vengeful, her slow slip into insanity, and most of all, if we actually got to see The Empire Strikes Back-esque magic training in the woods.

 

So yes, a two parter format would have helped.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Lord Voldemort

[Pony Of The Month 534]

 

 

Magic Duel would have been even better if they had the time to explore why Trixie is suddenly vengeful,

 

Well the mane 6 were antagonizing a pony who was just trying to put on a show. The mane 6 were the real antagonists of Boast Busters, and they treated Trixie horribly. I think Trixie has a reason to be vengeful. 

[Orablanco Account 3,707]

Well the mane 6 were antagonizing a pony who was just trying to put on a show. The mane 6 were the real antagonists of Boast Busters, and they treated Trixie horribly. I think Trixie has a reason to be vengeful.

I mean, yeah, we, the audience, understands that, but the characters themselves didn't seem to care.

 

I dunno, I just get the feeling that the writers were trying to make Trixie sympathetic, but they couldn't make the two parter they originally wanted to make, so all that was relegated to an expository Powerpoint.

[Fhaolan 4,484]

Oh, yes, it would have made a difference. Of course it would have, because being longer would have been a difference in and of itself.

 

Would it have made them better though? Well, I honestly think that Keep Calm would have benefited from about 5 minutes more on the transition of Discord, but a full 22 minutes more would have been too much.

 

Mystery Cure would have been better with at least one failed attempt to 'fix' the problem, that makes things worse, just to emphasize the difficulty of the task. As it is, the resolution is the part that feels rushed. That and the suddenly *bampf* they're in Canterlot in the middle of the coronation transition. So maybe about 10 minutes more. Yes, it *could* have been stretched into a 2-parter, but honestly there's not much happening during the second half with the alicoronation except for the Celestia song and the final 'with a little help from my friends' speech. The rest of it is very filler-y.

 

As it stands, these wouldn't need 2-parters, but what it did need was breaking the 22 minute barrier. So I think a 'Director's Cut' version of some episodes would be greatly appreciated.

[MojoDash 27]

I think Magical Mystery Cure could hav easily been a 2 partr. Because the second when FLuttershy said "I know that she's a true frien, and I'll do anything I can to help her!" I thought, Oh. Well that's finished already. I know all you bronies love the songs, but I think they should have made the problem harder to solve instead of those songs. ALthough I must say I loved a lot of them. The coronation was great, (made me nearly cry...) but still, they could have made it a two parter.

[Antismurf9001 1,271]

I'm not entirely sure how I would work doing a 2-parter about Keep Calm and Flutter On, but I've actually thought out how I would do Magical Mystery Cure a while ago.

 

First of all, to fit the 13-episode limit, I would axe Spike At Your Service, because, in my opinion, it was one of the weakest episodes overall.  Then, as to how I would work the actual episode, the first part would be entirely about the cutie mark mix-up, and would end with Twilight completing Starswhirl's spell and getting exploded by the Elements of Harmony.  The second part would detail what happens in the starry dimension, mainly a recap of all of Twilight's character development and explanation as to why she deserves to be a princess and conclude with her coronation ceremony.

 

I feel like making it a two-parter would have made things feel a lot smoother, and wouldn't have a song every 2 minutes (not that the songs were in any way bad, they were just condensed into a really small space).

[Yes-Man 597]

I honestly don't blame the creators for rushing. It was most likely Hasbro who made them hurry, because they wanted their viewers and ratings NOW, which was only caused by the fact that we were breathing down their necks and screaming, "WHEN'S S3 GONNA COME OUT?""WE'VE BEEN WAITING TOO LONG""I CAN'T WAIT ANYMORE."

[PonyKorra 35]

You could definitley feel the rushed pace in those episodes but I really think that they did a goo job in that time frame. A two parter would have been nice.

[Tex 88]

You can't redeem the fall of a god with two episodes, or a movie. They ruined discord, I don't care if they used twenty episodes to explain the reasoning behind it, Discord wasn't a character I ever wanted to see reformed. He was a literal god in the world of equestria  and a single pony manages to tug at his heartstrings so easily. Gods are called gods for a reason, his purpose as a god should hold precedence over all else. The episode wasn't bad, and couldn't have been made any better by being a two parter. They just shouldn't have used Discord to teach a lesson like this.

 

MMM on the other hand? Absolutely. A two parter would have made it way better. I still enjoyed it, but the pacing was horrible for a season finale that could have very well been the series finale.

Edited April 14, 2013 by Tex

[Dark Qiviut 22,431]

Expanding Keep Calm And Flutter On into a 2-parter would not have made Discord's redemption any more plausible. If it actually were a 2-parter, people would still call it "rushed." If 22 minutes isn't enough to believe that Discord is good, how is 44 minutes enough? If they really want to please everyone, they'd make it into a 3 hour epic. Than no one would be complaining about how "rushed" it is. They would just scream "I want old discord back!"

Once again, you're grasping for straws.

 

Twenty minutes is very LITTLE time to explain the process. You have to write the beginning, middle, and end and fit all of it within a narrow time frame. Discord in KCaFO wasn't redeemed within at least a forty-eight-hour frame. He was introduced in the beginning of the episode and was redeemed in around twelve hours, confirmed by Celestia around twenty-four hours later. He's menaced society longer than the Mane Six was even born and put Equestia through hell before he was initially turned into stone. And then you have the layers of information buried within that compacted space. The foreshadowing, Discord's quick tricks, the switching of the scenes, the conflicts, the key moments in the scene, and — once more — Discord being a millennium-old deity all within one small space that whizzes through a lot quicker than you think. The fact that he was reformed in less than one calendar day (especially via very poor pacing) makes no logical sense whatsoever.

 

A two-parter for a plot like KCaFO would've definitely worked a lot better because of something like these such ideas:

• Celestia's "logic" for redeeming Discord wouldn't be as flimsy. More time equals more opportunity for Polsky to write a logical explanation. In KCaFO, Celestia's "reason" was that she wanted him to use his powers for good and relied on Fluttershy to do it because she was the bearer of the Element of Kindness. Given Discord's personality and past, this "logic" is bullshit! It must be more convincing, and at least three more minutes of Celestia explaining why would've done the trick.
• The details wouldn't have been lost. There are layers of foreshadowing, but the small space forced them all to blend too much to the point where they went unnoticed.
• Further explore the eventual friendship Discord and Fluttershy would have. The two became friends at the end, but Discord manipulated Fluttershy, not truly viewing her as a friend until the end. Dialogue between them would give their friendship strength and show the potential of breaking down the barriers on both ends instead of merely one.
• Discord's past as a psychotic tyrant can be explored better and would allow the writers to call back on past episodes and lines such as Discord saying why he wouldn't turn ponies into stone.
• It gives the rest of the Mane Six a better opportunity to trust him and see through his mind games better. They remained antagonistic towards him until the final two minutes.

With a two-parter, Discord's redemption would've been given more time and would've made him turning to a borderline antagonist a hell of a lot more convincing. There's no excuse for lackluster performance in the professional already; a two-parter makes this less excusable. KCaFO's good, but way too weak to make the process so convincing. Just like Magical Mystery Cure and the poor way that was handled, if given one more part, then the episode wouldn't be subject to critiques and criticism of its objective flaws.

 

MMM on the other hand? Absolutely. A two parter would have made it way better. I still enjoyed it, but the pacing was horrible for a season finale that could have very well been the series finale.

MMC was definitely a series finale. The final draft of the script was submitted in November 2011, and season four wasn't planned yet. DHX treated season three as the final one, which is why they crammed so many bold ideas at once (with mixed results).

Edited April 14, 2013 by Dark Qiviut

[Zerobot 179]

I think that KCAFO should stay as a one parter, because it's not rushed enough that two parts wouldn't be slow. Maybe it should've been a 30 minute no commercials special or something. As for MMC, I'm in the small group that enjoyed the fast paced musical setup of song-problem-song-solution-song-etc, but I agree that it could have been a much better episode with two parts. To be honest I liked how MMC went down; it had a plot that would've led us to have very many questions, well-paced or not, and instead of getting in depth explanations on every detail it was a musical, being propelled by it's emotions and music too fast to fill us in on all the details.

 

I think it's pretty funny. Remembering that Lauren had it planned from the start that Twilight would take Celestia's place, imagine how this episode would feel to someone who has been anticipating Twilight's coronation since day 1. Building it up in their head as an extreme adventure, as an episode to rise above all else, and then it's a light hearted fast paced musical. All the details we want to know are coming and going too quickly to really grasp the whole situation - and then Twilight is an alicorn.

 

Before anyone points it out I realize how flawed my logic might sound, and that I'm essentially saying that I enjoyed the poor pacing, but

...but nothing, I enjoyed the poor pacing 

[Planty 1,053]

Simple, really.

 

You watch Magical Mystery Cure, each of the ponies problems is introduced within minutes, and solved after one "oh no I'm sad" moment by Twi.

 

I'm not saying it wasn't a good episode (though it wasn't my favorite of the season), but an episode spent on the problems/an episode spent on the solution would have served the story better than the single episode format.

 

Obviously, it was kinda shoehorned in to fit the shorter season length.  I believe the writers wanted to do much more with the concept than the time constraints allowed.

 

I agree, regarding Magical Mystery Cure I would have liked to see it developed over the entire series. They could have had a different episode for each of the ponies problems and make it similar to the arc in S1.

 

The episode was great (I did enjoy it) but it felt out of place, and I agree with the people who said originally it would have been the equestria games as a finale (which they built up throughout the series) but that got scrapped in favor of an Ali-Twi episode.

[pinkiefan1287 610]

 

 

I agree, regarding Magical Mystery Cure I would have liked to see it developed over the entire series. They could have had a different episode for each of the ponies problems and make it similar to the arc in S1.

 

That's a pretty good idea, but I'm not sure how well it would work. Looking at each character one at a time would take forever and might get kinda old.  

[Phoenix237 353]

Keep Calm and Flutter On:

While it may have been cramped I feel as though that there may not have been enough to make it a two-parter

 

Magical Mystery Cure:

This one is understandable. While I enjoyed the episode it felt rushed. The characters had a problem, which could have been expanded further, yet te way it was resolved it seems as thought the problem started in the morning and was finished in time before dinner.

[Anadu Kune 668]

 

 

The spell Twilight cast changed the ponies' cutie marks and destinies, not just their cutie marks. It changed pretty much their entire life stories. The Apples didn't question Pinkie's presence, because only Twilight (and by extension Spike) knew that things had been changed from how they were supposed to be; everypony else was none the wiser. Including those effected, and the Apple family, the patrons of Sugarcube Corner, and all that stuff. ((This is my headcanon, but I believe that it's a fairly good explanation of what's going on.)) The Apples didn't question Pinkie's presence, because as far as they knew, Pinkie had been a worker on the Apple farm consistently, effectively replacing Applejack in that role the moment she found her cutie mark, at the Sonic Rainboom. The same could be argued for each of the rest of the Mane 6 who were affected. The lack of foliage on the trees reflects this fact, as far as Pinkie goes. If you notice, as soon as Applejack returns, coming to realize who she is truly meant to be, the leaves return, as if they had been under Applejack's care the whole time, rather than Pinkie's, since Applejack's destiny, as well as her memory and personal history, had been restored. 

 

I don't think this is just head cannon it is indicated in the episode itself. Look at the animal's reaction to Fluttershy as she is talking to them right before reharmonizing. They don't seem to recognize her and take a bit to warm up to her. Look at Pinkie's reharmonization. The ponies don't seem to recognize Pinkie they seem confused. Then her hair poofs up and she she says "Come on everypony I wanna see you smile" after which they exclaim her name joyously in what would seem to be recognition. Notice also how no pony ever questions why Fluttershy is in Sugar Cube Corner, or Why Rarity is doing the weather. All they express is frustration at their work. This is all supported by the other changes we see in the ponies, they have the memories, living places, and cutie marks of the other ponies. This is all compounded by their relationship to the elements. They are bound to the elements and the elements to them as is demonstrated in the pilot episode by Twilights dialog and visualy through shapes of the elements as their cutie marks. It has also been shown a change to the ponies effects the usage of the elements. When discord changed the ponies the elements could no longer be used as they require the ponies's connection to function. The opposite happened in MMM a change to the elements was reflected in the ponies. Though it was also visible in the elements as their color were changed. They are connected to the elements a connection they have had since before most of them met which was shown in Cutie Mark Chronicles. That connection is there throughout their lives. In MMM those connections are switched.