List of writers for Season 4

[Megas 27,765]

I'm surprised no one posted this yet. It's season 4 related, but I felt like it warranted it's own thread. Recently Equestria Daily released a list of writers announced for season 4

 

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/07/list-of-writers-involved-in-season-4.html#more

 

My opinions?

I think Meghan has done a good job as a head writer so far

I missed AKR and Charlotte Fullerton so I'm really glad to see them back

I always liked Polsky's episodes so I'm happy to hear that he's back

I'm also happy to hear about more Powell, since she wrote my favorite episodes from S3

And personally Merriwether stepped up her game in Season 3(I'm probably one of the few people who liked Spike at Your Service)

I'm kinda anxious to see what the new writers will handle the show(apparently one of them worked for Beavis & Butthead and Celebrity Deathmatch)

 

Also, notice that a certain popular writer was missing from the list

[~StatesTheOblivious~ 1,795]

Where the f*ck is M. A. Larson?!

Did he leave? Without saying something? No! Please not.

And one writer who worked on Celebrity deathmatch and another one who worked on Fairly Odd Parents?

I don't know what I'm supposed to think about this.

Nah, I shouldn't be prejudging. Can turn out well. Has to. Will. But no Larson? Dammit.

The one who made the best out of MMC that was possible while only being able to make it a single episode... I don't get it... Is he gone? Did he want to leave?

Edited July 27, 2013 by StatesTheOblivious

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,730]

M.A. Larson not being in season 4? Damn, that is weird, if that is indeed confirmed. Despite that odd and saddening news, I think the show is in good hands. There has been a lot of hate for Meghan from some, which is weird because she has written some great episodes. Not sure where the hate comes from.

 

Though former Beavis & Butthead writer will be interesting.

[Scootalove 10,689]

No, M.A. Larson?

 

Well, I just hope that the new writers try to make the stories interesting but a writer who worked on Fairy Oddparents? Well, we are in trouble.

[SCS 7,537]

I wish M.A. Larson was working on season 4. But, especially since Meghan is still the head writer, I see no reason not to have confidence in both the old and new writers that season 4 will be beyond fantastic, as the rest of the show so far has been.

[Obsolete 681]

M.A. Larson will be missed, no doubt, but I'm equally disappointed in the lack of Cindy Morrow. She's great at slice-of-life stuff.

 

Still, no reason to fret. Having new blood on the writing team is always exciting. No idea what to expect from them!

[Dark Qiviut 22,445]

The new writers will give season four some new blood. However, I don't know their work and haven't researched them, so I have no real opinion of them.
 
As for the writers coming back:

• Meghan McCarthy: She has a very well-done, extensive résumé in the form of several popular episodes like Dragonshy, Party of One (my favorite season one episode for being so well-written and well-characterized), Lesson Zero, Sweet & Elite, A Canterlot Wedding, and so on. She's done well as a writer, but has a spotty record keeping the team from collectively rushing out many of season three's scripts. (One Bad Apple, Spike at Your Service, Keep Calm and Flutter On, Games Ponies Play, and Magical Mystery Cure had either moments where the script was poorly paced or had the pace crammed from beginning to end. The Crystal Empire, Part 2's pace crawled, and Equestria Girls was a rushed mess.) With a bigger budget, only time will tell if McCathy can hone her editing skills and perform better.
• Dave Polsky: The episodes he's written have been decent to questionable at best despite being able to write the characters well and blend in some of his unique sense of humor into the characters organically. Feeling Pinkie Keen, despite being a fine episode for the most part, had a very questionably written friendship report that left way too many people scratching their heads. Over a Barrel took a very sensitive concept (a parody of the Natives and settlers) and blew it.
  
  Too Many Pinkie Pies's and Keep Calm and Flutter On's characterizations excelled. (TMPP explored Pinkie's determination to make things right and show how she's not a bumbling, random airhead. If given another twenty minutes, KCaFO would've been more memorable for the right reasons and not for Discord's redemption being crammed and poorly paced.) Games Ponies Play is arguably the worst episode last season and among the worst in the entire series. (I'd argue it's worst than The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well, but you can toss a coin on that one.) We'll see what he can do in season four.
• Amy Keating Rogers: It was speculated she was going to come back, and now it's confirmed! *yay* With Larson not among the list of writers, she's the best one so far. Some of her episodes are extremely memorable. (The Best Night Ever, The Last Roundup, Fall Weather Friends, and Applebuck Season are highly popular, and The Smile Song is one of the best songs in the entire series due to its simplicity and memorability.) MMMystery on the Friendship Express and A Dog and Pony Show were both full of blah (the former for making the characters unnecessarily out of character to move the plot, the latter for making the Diamond Dogs so stupid in order to make Rarity the better and more intelligent character), but when she writes well, it's glorious. Good to see her back and hope she can keep it consistent.
• Corey Powell: Despite writing Spike extremely out of character in Just for Sidekicks, she has the talent to write well. Pace was a common problem area in seson three; neither of her episodes had that, and JfS was loaded with content. But her debut episode, Sleepless in Ponyville, was a joy to watch. Great humor. Great storytelling. Excellent characterization. (Rarity was written very well, teasing Sweetie Belle by treating her as both her little sister and equal sister. Luna being a confident dreamwalker showed how much she grew since Luna Eclipsed, all the while without crossing moral boundaries. Rainbow Dash was at her best since Hurricane Fluttershy.) She can write some excellent episodes, and I can't wait to see her talent grow.
• Charlotte Fullerton: AKR was one of the writers absent for season three. Fullerton was the other. She worked a very minute load in season two, being credited for three episodes (May the Best Pet Win!, which wasn't very good; Baby Cakes, which is actually quite good; and the story idea for Putting Your Hoof Down, which Williams wrote her second-best in). However, two of her episodes is completely memorable: Look Before You Sleep for the wonderful way Applejack and Rarity settled as foils (and developing their characterizations in the process) and Suited for Success for the well-written plot, climax, characters, and Art of the Dress. Good to see her back and hope she can perform.
• Merriweather Williams: The most controversial writer currently in the lineup due to her horrible start in the form of The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well, an episode so awful that it nearly ruined Rainbow Dash's reputation. Her next episodes, Hearth's Warming Eve and Putting Your Hoof Down, did a great job from a storytelling perspective, but still kept that stigma of writing characters as unlikeable bastards in order to make the story work. (Dragon Quest, one of my favorites, also did it, but with even less success with a questionable ending. The mantra, "Actions by a specific few don't always mean they're the actions of the whole," applies here, spoiling the moral and inadvertently undermining Spike's character development.)
  
  Surprisingly, season three used less cynicism. Wonderbolts Academy was the best Dash-centered episode since Sonic Rainboom, but Spike at Your Service stunk due to Spike being contradictorily incompetent (among other reasons). That said, she's a good writer who has since been able to hone her skills and perform better. I wonder what she'll do next.

As for the new writers, welcome aboard the brony train! You have the résumés and talent. You showed it in your other work. Now prove it in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Good luck to all of you!
 
Yeah, it's a shame M. A. Larson and Cindy Morrow aren't going to write episodes for the upcoming season (their recent tweets confirmed it), but there's a good team who can churn out good episodes if given the right concept, budget, guidance, understanding, and leeway to do it. Good luck, Larson and Morrow, and we'll (hopefully) see you in season five.

Edited July 28, 2013 by Dark Qiviut

[notdog1996 315]

Larson is only absent because he had to write a novel series.  He said he'd come back for season 5, assuming there's one (which we don't have a reason to doubt).  

 

For the topic, I really like the writers we have.  Charlotte Fullerton wrote Baby Cakes, one of my favorite season 2 episodes.  I'm really happy to know she's there.  Corey Powell is an amazing writer from what I saw so I'm glad she's still there.  Despite the hate, I still really like Merriwether Williams.  Only her first episode was really bad, she picked up quite fast in my opinion.  Wonderbolts Academy is in my top 3 of season 3.  I'm still a bit sad that Larson and Morrow are not there but hopefully they'll come back next season.  

[Shift 4,272]

Really glad to see a new writer with my name. Not saying which one it is.

 

But...where is M.A Larson? Please please please make him stay!

 

Also, i'm glad to see Amy and Charlotte back. They were my favorite writers, up there with Larson.

 

Kind of sad to see that Cindy isn't writing. Glad to see that Meghan, Polsky, and Merriweather are back. Not so sure about Porey.

Edited July 27, 2013 by Shift

[RWB 229]

Losing M.A. Larson for a season is a terrible thing, but on the other hand, I must really congratulate him on his success, and I plan to both read his books and watch the movie.

 

Cindy Morrow, I feel, is not as big a loss. She has written some of my absolute favorites, but she's also done some massive clunkers. I hope she will be back for Season 5, of course.

 

That being said, here are my thoughts on the writers on for this season:

Amy Keating Rogers: Ticket Master, Applebuck Season, Bridle Gossip, Fall Weather Friends, A Dog and Pony Show, The Best Night Ever, The Cutie Pox, The Last Roundup, A Friend in Deed and MMMystery on the Friendship Express.

Much like what is often said about Dave Polsky, AKR has a tendency to be much more solid in the humour department than on the script side(Bridle Gossip I feel really is the episode that shows this the best). Not a terrible weakness, but her episodes aren't the greatest in the series- though they are very funny. I do think she has a definite edge on Polsky, though.

Meghan McCarthy: Dragonshy, Call of the Cutie, Green Isn't Your Color, Party of One, Lesson Zero, Sweet and Elite, Hearts and Hooves Day, A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1, A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2, The Crystal Empire - Part 1 and The Crystal Empire - Part 2.
Meghan is pretty great overall, but like Morrow, also has a few weak episodes. But I really feel that she seems to have one of the best performances as a slice of life writer... while her two-parters both felt weak in the plot department(though I really liked the music and action in ACW, I felt the writing was pretty bad).

Charlotte Fullerton: Look Before You Sleep, Suited For Success, A Bird in the Hoof, May the Best Pet Win! and Baby Cakes. Credited for story for Putting Your Hoof Down.
Uy. I really don't know what to say here. I like all her Season 1 Episodes, while May the Best Pet Win is just okay(though the humour is great), and I really don't like Baby Cakes. Hoping she goes all season 1 on us!

 

...Which is funny, because I actually consider Season 1 to be the weakest season overall(it has more clunkers than Season 3, and is overall pretty meh).

Dave Polsky: Feeling Pinkie Keen, Over a Barrel, Too Many Pinkie Pies and Keep Calm and Flutter On. Credited for story for Spike at Your Service.
His season one episodes are pretty weak in the writing(though funny), and so are the Season 3 ones. The claims about him being hilarious, but not that good at plot feels pretty true.

Merriwether Williams: The Mysterious Mare Do Well, Hearth's Warming Eve, Putting Your Hoof Down, Dragon Quest, Wonderbolts Academy and Spike at Your Service.
A pretty even split of good episodes and rather bad ones. She tend to be funny, but also to flanderize the characters a bit. MMDW is her weakest episode, though.

Corey Powell: Sleepless in Ponyville and Just for Sidekicks.
Powell is yet to produce a bad episode. I won't say she's better than Larson(too little material to compare), but if she keeps this quality up, then I might have to reconsider.

 

 

---------------------------------

 

 

New writers:

 

Natasha Levinger: Wildcard.

 

Ed Valentine: I don't really think FoP overall is that good(I kinda see it as a slightly worse Spongebob, right down to the falling quality in the later years), but I can't deem him bad by that, considering he worked alongside Amy Keating Rogers on that. I will go and watch his episodes now though. The show suffers heavily from "Character turns into jerk unrealistically as the plot demands", a common problem with Hartman's shows.

 

Scott Sonneborn: I've only watched one show he was a writer on, and that's Edgar and Ellen. While I don't know if the episodes I've seen were made by him, I really did like that show, so that bodes well.

 

Josh Haber: Only watched a few episodes of the prequel series and thought it was junk. Gonna give Kaijudo a chance...

[lincolnshirepony 527]

I'm pretty stoked that Charlotte Fullerton is back. Look Before You Sleep is one of my favorite episodes in the entire series, along with Suited for Success. Hopefully I'll see more like those from her this season. 

I'm bummed M.A. Larson is sitting this season out. He has written a lot of good episodes. I haven't lost faith in the MLP writers yet though. I'm sure they'll make season 4 memorable. =)

[FoxyCryptid 4,330]

I'm glad Megan stuck around, she my personal favorite episode(The Wedding), and a bunch of others I liked. 

 

I hope the one that wrote Mare-Do-Well as improved her writing skill, that's the one episode I'll tear a new one from a writing standpoint(which is looks like she has according to the Season 3 episodes she worked on.  

 

Looking at the writing credentials everyone typed out, seems like a good bunch aside from that though. 

[NavelColt 22,882]

Glad to see Scootalove Creator, Corey is returning Very excited to see which episodes she'll be working on/has worked on, and if anything further adorable comes out of it.

[Homura Akemi 974]

D'aww. M.A. Larson wrote my favourite episode: Cutie Mark Chronicles! Even though one of the other episodes he wrote, Magical Mystery Cure, wasn't to my full liking, I honestly would have preferred if Merriweather Williams took a break. She is easily my least favourite of the show writers. I hope the new writers are good.

Edited July 28, 2013 by Dismajo

[Toon Richard 534]

Be thankful that moffat wasn't on the list.
Even i question what goes on his Sick and twisted brain.
I got a feeling that some Exec would add him.
I dont like it.

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

 

• Amy Keating Rogers: It was speculated she was going to come back, and now it's confirmed! *yay* With Larson not among the list of writers, she's the best one so far.

I totally agree! Amy is my favorite writer and I'm thrilled to see her back. Larson will be missed but he'll be back in Season 5. 

 

One of the new names is Scott Sonneberg, who's done a lot from Voltron Force to late-era Beavis & Butt-head to (not kidding) The New Tom Green Show and Naughty Amateur Home Videos. 

Then there's Natasha Levinger, who is an unknown apart from a teleplay 9 years ago.   Josh Haber wrote two episodes of Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters. Finally there's Ed Valentine from Fairly OddParents, not a horrible show but not MLP level. I'm not real excited about this lineup but we'll see what they can do.

[Zygen 6,066]

I really don't pay a whole ton of attention to who writes what, but I think its a pretty good team overall, I think besides no M.A Larson, but really as long as they write well i won't know the difference, as it takes a few watches before I even remember who wrote the episode by its end. And most of the time i forget anyways.