Should Equestria Games have focused on the actual games?

[FirestormCAN 246]

I honestly thought this episode would've been better if they had more than two sporting events in there. I mean I know they've only got 22 minutes to work with, but they could've shown more of the games going on in the background rather than just have the ones we went through with Spike. You want to have the main focus on Spike, the hero of the Crystal Empire? Fine, go ahead. But put more games in there for crying out loud, you've got like less than 100 medals up for grabs, you could've shown more than two events and the ceremonies.

 

That's the one thing that honestly bugs me. I know sports can seem boring to some kids, but you could at least give some samples of the games they have to expand the lore of Equestria.

[Pastel 7,627]

The princesses have wings. They could have gone up to help. In fact, Twilight seemed ready to do it when Spike ran by her.

But this is so expected in FIM... Cadance and Twilight are the only princesses that actually do something on-screen, with rare exceptions.

I believe that's because the princesses aren't good flyers, they don't fly as well as the participants of the Equestria Games. Edited May 5, 2014 by Blobulle

[Tabe 216]

I agree. I came to watch ponies n stuff, not sports.

 

If I'm to tell the truth, Bronies over-analyze all the episodes. You have heard it a million times, but this show was made for little girls who don't see the plot holes and mistakes. I don't mean to be offensive if anyone took it that way.

 

I try to just enjoy the episodes, and I do

Edited May 5, 2014 by Tabe

[Freewave 1,145]

I agree. I came to watch ponies n stuff, not sports.

 

If I'm to tell the truth, Bronies over-analyze all the episodes. You have heard it a million times, but this show was made for little girls who don't see the plot holes and mistakes. I don't mean to be offensive if anyone took it that way.

 

I try to just enjoy the episodes, and I do

Did you come to watch an entire episode about Spike instead of the Equestrian Games? I'm not a little girl, bronies aren't little girls, the writers aren't little girls, and if we're going to have a fanbase around an ALL-AGES great cartoon I expect the writers to try to please both audiences. I don't think either audience demanded ANOTHER subpar Spike episode.....

[Metemponychosis 1,238]

I believe that's because the princesses aren't good flyers, they don't fly as well as the participants of the Equestria Games.

I don't think that Celestia has enough character development for anyone to say that she isn't a good flyer.

 

Silly joke aside, Cadance seems to fly well enough in all the episodes where she's flown. Luna and Celestia can fly well enough in the comics and I can't think, off the top of my head, of any reference to the princesses being bad flyers in the canon. They don't really need to be doing acrobatics in order to push something. Not mention that Twilight seemed like SHE was going to help.

[Wind Chaser 4,767]

There really should be an "other" option.

 

The payoff for the arc, which took more episodes to build up than any other arc in this show, should have been more than just one Spike episode with somewhat interchangeable setting.

 

This would have better off been a series of at least 3 episodes focusing on different storylines surrounding the Games and the potential for the event to hold life-changing experiences for other characters, but on the other hand, the buildup episodes were self-contained in their plots, thus any revisiting of the issues beyond a simple continuity nod would have ended up redundant. Ergo, the problem lays on the entire arc and the simple fact that MLP always has trouble with story arcs, rather than just the one episode.

[StitchandMLPlover 930]

I found this good review on the subject  http://chris-dilke.deviantart.com/art/My-Little-Pony-Friendship-is-Magic-S4-E24-Review-451857933   I think the could have showed a few more events, at least 1 non pegasus event, but all in all I'm glad they stayed on topic with Spike's story because it made for a better story. I also think they could have waited until season 5 to show the Equestria Games. 

[Sugar Truss 9]

I liked the Spike story, but I was really disappointed with everything overall. There was so much to play off of. What I think they should do is produce a bunch of shorts to play on you tube to address the stuff they glossed over. Ex. What events are in the Equestria Games? Why didn't Apple Jack compete? Twilight's struggle with sitting in a boring throne as opposed to having fun with her friends. Griffins were competing. Was Gilda? How would Dash react to Gilda being there? What other races competed? What's up with the foreign dignitaries? 

 

They could probably still do a couple of episodes on the Equestria Games and have them as special episodes for dvd release or something. It would be nice.

[Grumpy Enchantress 586]

There really should be an "other" option.

Sorry. I'll add that in a little bit, but I'm on mobile now and I don't see a way to edit the poll here. You can click a thing that says "edit poll", but it doesn't seem to work. I'll add it when I'm on my laptop.

The princesses have wings. They could have gone up to help.

You're right, they sure could have and that's exactly what they did.

 

 

Now there's no argument that could be made against their actions.

[Forlong 1,725]

You know their magic was disabled to avoid cheating right? The episode explained this.

Funny story: Alicorns can fly.  They also have all the strength of Earth Ponies (whatever that means).  There were other ways they could be useful.

 

Edit: apologies for not noticing that they were flying up to help.  I wrote this before seeing that pic.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Forlong

[Metemponychosis 1,238]

Sorry. I'll add that in a little bit, but I'm on mobile now and I don't see a way to edit the poll here. You can click a thing that says "edit poll", but it doesn't seem to work. I'll add it when I'm on my laptop.

 

You're right, they sure could have and that's exactly what they did.

 

 

Now there's no argument that could be made against their actions.

Went back to the episode and looked at it again...

So I totally missed that the three times I saw it! How many frames is that?!

Cool! Thanks for showing me that.

[NavelColt 22,876]

This is a complaint I've already been hearing a lot and I just don't get it. Who would want to watch an entire episode about a fictional sporting event instead of an actual eternal conflict with character development? What do you guys think?

 

Well, people's complaint seems to be soley based around the build-up towards the games and the (apparent) let-down people felt when they found out it doesn't 'match' said build up for the 'games themselves', not so much that they didn't get to watch pony sports, which I agree, I would find a tad boring, even if interesting, by comparison to what we had.

 

Me, I don't care. Shoulda woulda coulda, says the fandom, nice episode with a great moral, fucking Scootalove moment and Dash racing Spitfire, is what I say.

[Solar Cloud 493]

Did you come to watch an entire episode about Spike instead of the Equestrian Games? I'm not a little girl, bronies aren't little girls, the writers aren't little girls, and if we're going to have a fanbase around an ALL-AGES great cartoon I expect the writers to try to please both audiences. I don't think either audience demanded ANOTHER subpar Spike episode.....

Why don't you try speaking for yourself. I was pleased with the episode. It focused on a character(What the series is known for) instead of sports events for 22 minutes.

[Carbon Maestro 1,003]

 

 

Well, people's complaint seems to be soley based around the build-up towards the games and the (apparent) let-down people felt when they found out it doesn't 'match' said build up for the 'games themselves', not so much that they didn't get to watch pony sports, which I agree, I would find a tad boring, even if interesting, by comparison to what we had

 

Well said. I also want to point out that even if we want to have adult-level writing like Game Of Thrones in every episode, I do have to point out that you're expecting too much from a rated G show. Yes, it's nice when there's the Queen Chrysalis epic episode thrown in the mix. But take a step back and look at the whole picture.

 

This show focuses more on the character development as seen by the writers. I would actually find pony sports of the Equestrian games to be rather boring, to be honest.

 

Man, I loved this episode. It's a really good lesson that hits home. And I think that's the important part. Action is cool too, but don't go all Michael Bay about it.

[Freewave 1,145]

Why don't you try speaking for yourself. I was pleased with the episode. It focused on a character(What the series is known for) instead of sports events for 22 minutes.

 

I am speaking for myself. Again they spent several episodes building up all season long in preparation to the EQd games and all we got out of that was a Spike episode and little else. They could have focused on Dash (in the equestria games), Twilight (rare princess role), or the games themselves, and they frankly didn't give any of that the attention they deserved. My opinion. Take a look at the poll if you want to know others.

 

If you're happy with that, that's wonderful. I expect more from the writers and I've seen better from them in the past.

[pony.colin 156]

I guess some people have spelled out that they "capped" all the unicorns magic as part of the security measures when they entered the stadium over concern for cheating. However,

 

 

 

I'll just say the same thing I said about this in the show discussion topic section:

 

I'll be on that side of fence and say I actually believe that Princess Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Twilight did go through the disabling spell, post-opening ceremony. It's a reasonable premise and it's not that far-fetched I would say. From Celeestia's standpoint – it would be a show of good faith and humility. Sure it's unlikely that Celestia would use magic to manipulate the games and/or show favouritism towards a certain team. However, Celestia (& company) would have rationalization to go through the disabling spell as a sign of good faith to demonstrate that your leader does not put herself above any other unicorn and will accept the disabelling spell. That would be my attempt to put rationalization there. It's more about political image here. (Of course any of the alicorns would be above the disabelling spell).

 

Yes from another logical standpoint, if a crisis were ever to occur surely the Princesses would weld the most powerful magic to remedy the situation and it would be extremely unwise to disable their magic if such an incident were to occur. But like I said, rationalization of good faith demonstration is possibility I'm throwing out there. And yes I would agree, any alicorn princess could have probably fixed the ice cloud problem very easily, give the poor dragon boy a bone, he hasn't been thrown one much as of late/ even though it's not the greatest execution, but it somewhat makes up for it for him during this season.

 

 

And about my actual opinion on whether or not I think Equestria games should have focused on the actual games themselves - I was okay with it being more focused on Spike.  But that might be due to this  /

 

 

Well, people's complaint seems to be soley based around the build-up towards the games and the (apparent) let-down people felt when they found out it doesn't 'match' said build up for the 'games themselves', not so much that they didn't get to watch pony sports, which I agree, I would find a tad boring, even if interesting, by comparison to what we had.

 

Me, I don't care. Shoulda woulda coulda, says the fandom, nice episode with a great moral, fucking Scootalove moment and Dash racing Spitfire, is what I say.

 

 

I didn't even have a build up for this episode, so I didn't fail any expectation that I had about it being about the games themselves.

[LZRD WZRD 1,929]

No. The show is more about characters and usually focuses on internal conflicts. In fact, the entire arc had internal conflicts and has never really been about the actual events. I'd understand the frustration if there were episodes where they were just training for events, but it's never been about that. The games themselves were really just a fresh way to explore different conflicts with the characters. So Spike's conflict fits in perfectly. Also, we were promised an episode about the games; we were not promised one of showing us the events. That imo would have been horribly redundant and likely boring. You want games? Watch Fall Weather Friends or The Frycook Games from Spongebob. Honestly I was never looking forward to this episode for this very reason. And the fact that they focused more on Spike and things other than just the events shows some original/creative storytelling. Nothing could have been more cliche or overdone than just showing the events. What we got worked really well imo

[Rainboom Dash 1,055]

I liked the episode as it was but felt there could've been more focus on the actual games, given how hyped and built up the Equestria Games story arc was.

[ghostfacekiller39 23,857]

My whole thoughts on the Equestria Games situation:

 

The episode was fine the way it is; I found it to be humorous, yet managed to have great characterization and a good storyline. Based off of the strength of this episode alone, I would say no. It was fine, near perfect, the way it was played out.

 

HOWEVER, there's one thing I'd change, and, trust me, it'd change the whole season.

 

I'd ditch the box arc entirely, and throw the villain in there at the 2 part season opener. However, I'd keep that Equestria Games Build Up going strong; I'd throw a Twilight episode in there, one with her being somewhat adorkable. It could be about her getting used to her wings or something, which, would scrap a two part series finale all together.

 

I'd then make the Equestria Games the season finale, similar to the GGG in Season 1. Of course, it'd find a way to feature all of the mane 6; Pinkie, AJ, Rarity, and Spike could be having a good time watching the competition, adding a humorous side-story to the plot in some form or fashion; then, it could focus on RD and Flutters with their own arc about competing in the games, and, finally, Twilight would be up there with the other princesses, only to be gazing longingly at her friends; she'd miss them, and keep trying to sneak down there to sit with them, only to be pulled away by something else, causing her a great amount of distress. Finally, in the end, Celestia would give her the nod and she'd go down and watch Rainbow outrun Spitfire to take home the gold in the final event with her friends, and they'd all go celebrate afterwards.

 

That's what I would've done, at least
 

Edited May 6, 2014 by ghostfacekiller39

[Lightwing 12,955]

I'd then make the Equestria Games the season finale, similar to the GGG in Season 1. Of course, it'd find a way to feature all of the mane 6; Pinkie, AJ, Rarity, and Spike could be having a good time watching the competition, adding a humorous side-story to the plot in some form or fashion; then, it could focus on RD and Flutters with their own arc about competing in the games, and, finally, Twilight would be up there with the other princesses, only to be gazing longingly at her friends; she'd miss them, and keep trying to sneak down there to sit with them, only to be pulled away by something else, causing her a great amount of distress. Finally, in the end, Celestia would give her the nod and she'd go down and watch Rainbow outrun Spitfire to take home the gold in the final event with her friends, and they'd all go celebrate afterwards.

 

That should've been the "True" Equestria Games. episode -_-

When i've first saw the episode.i've liked it,but...It felt sorta...Incomplete

 

Your sinopsis would fit well...no...perfectly another Equestria Games episode.

 

If I have been the writter of this episode,i would've scrapped one episode from the season 4(Any special one exactly...),to make all the Equestria Games a 2 parter before the final.

 

The first part would be the actual episode,centered about Spike's problems,..

 

And a second part would be the Equestria Games's event,seen by the Mane 6's eyes,each one having its problems,but,on the core,it would've been a Twilight episode,dealing with the problem of not being with her friends during the games...

 

At least,that's my opinion

[StitchandMLPlover 930]

Sorry. I'll add that in a little bit, but I'm on mobile now and I don't see a way to edit the poll here. You can click a thing that says "edit poll", but it doesn't seem to work. I'll add it when I'm on my laptop.

 

You're right, they sure could have and that's exactly what they did.

 

 

Now there's no argument that could be made against their actions.

Wow! I never noticed that! Great eye! I guess they went pass the shot so fast it is hard to see. Yay for proactive princesses!

Edited May 6, 2014 by StitchandMLPlover

[Metemponychosis 1,238]

My whole thoughts on the Equestria Games situation:

 

The episode was fine the way it is; I found it to be humorous, yet managed to have great characterization and a good storyline. Based off of the strength of this episode alone, I would say no. It was fine, near perfect, the way it was played out.

 

HOWEVER, there's one thing I'd change, and, trust me, it'd change the whole season.

 

I'd ditch the box arc entirely, and throw the villain in there at the 2 part season opener. However, I'd keep that Equestria Games Build Up going strong; I'd throw a Twilight episode in there, one with her being somewhat adorkable. It could be about her getting used to her wings or something, which, would scrap a two part series finale all together.

 

I'd then make the Equestria Games the season finale, similar to the GGG in Season 1. Of course, it'd find a way to feature all of the mane 6; Pinkie, AJ, Rarity, and Spike could be having a good time watching the competition, adding a humorous side-story to the plot in some form or fashion; then, it could focus on RD and Flutters with their own arc about competing in the games, and, finally, Twilight would be up there with the other princesses, only to be gazing longingly at her friends; she'd miss them, and keep trying to sneak down there to sit with them, only to be pulled away by something else, causing her a great amount of distress. Finally, in the end, Celestia would give her the nod and she'd go down and watch Rainbow outrun Spitfire to take home the gold in the final event with her friends, and they'd all go celebrate afterwards.

 

That's what I would've done, at least

 

I agree so much with this.

Question: what about the Elements of Harmony? Keep them? Ditch them? Why?

[immblueversion 331]

I found a neat little review on the episode here: http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/319300/season-four-episode-review-equestria-games

[Adorkable 2,737]

I said half should have, and the other half could have focused on Twilight Sparkle being amazing. ^^

[Venomous 18,816]

I think the events should have had way more attention.