Couch's Thoughts on Episode 100 · 2:36am Jun 14th, 2015
Let me begin by saying there's a lot of valid criticism out there about, well, everything to do with this episode -- its premise, its execution, its intent, its impact on future episodes, its inpact on the fandom, and so on. It's far from perfect, or, dare I say it, great. I'm right there with many folks when I say it came across as a checklist of rote fan-inspired items Larson and DHX were ticking off one by one.
"Did you get the muffins in there?"
"Hell yeah I got the muffins. Bronies love muffins."
I understand how it can come off as indifferent in the best case, insulting in one much worse. I'll get to the worst case later.
I think the benefit of a writing community such as this is that, down to the last fledgling brony posting his CanonXMysteriousForeignerOC shipfic for the (hopefully) approving opinions of others, we care very much about what goes into a story -- certainly more than someone who simply enjoys tuning into the show every Saturday morning and maybe goes out to buy a few toys. We can agree that some of the dialogue was so on-the-nose -- Lyra and Bon Bon's "best friendship," Amethyst Star's exposition, pretty much the entirety of Steven Magnet's introduction -- that we have to wonder just what got Larson and McCarthy to remotely believe this wouldn't be awkward on screen.
They knew it'd be awkward. This whole conceit was awkward from the get-go. The staff came to this overgrown field of our fanon armed only with weed whackers and Agent Orange.
And I for one wish people wouldn't be so mad about that.
Agent Orange
I don't actually have a whole lot to discuss about this section, not to the audience I'm addressing. The show staff came to the field of fanon and, by giving background characters bits of spotlight, they chose wide swathes of that field to kill the fuck out of whatever crazy and interesting gadget theories some members of the fandom had for those respective characters. Most of us understand that fanfiction is just that -- by way of example, Cold in Gardez's latest story deals with Starlight Glimmer's little village, but casts it at an angle the show never bothered hinting at. It's no huge loss that Octavia and Vinyl Scratch were shown to hold joint ownership of a house outside Ponyville if you'd rather they lived separately (or even in separate cities). Fanfiction is surprisingly resilient against canon, for whatever V for Vendetta quote of your choosing you would like to go here.
Weed Whackers
No, very few people were concerned about what the show decided to put to rest. To many, however, what remains after the staff's defoliatory flight of fancy just happens to be the ugliest, smelliest, most toxic parts of the field one could possibly imagine. Trim the edges as neatly as you please, you're still trying to tidy up insults to existence. That worst case I'd referred to earlier goes encouraging cranially-evacuated, I-mean-SJW-offending, Rick-Sanchez-belching-the-word retarded reactions from the fandom. One person I -- to say I spoke with him would be a misrepresentation -- I listened to took the notion of this episode being a "love letter" and said it wasn't a love letter "for him."
I get it. God knows there's enough downward pressure on any discussion that remotely winks in the direction of intelligent and rational thought. There was enough fanwanking in here to kick-start PCJP projects from here to Timbuktu with enough left over to give Tara Strong a shower.
Dumb fancanon isn't new in the history of this fandom, said the world's most obvious philosopher, and holding up under the shitposts it creates wears one to the point where they don't use smiley faces on their site blogs anymore. But I think there's a difference here -- sure, whatever stupid Renaissance of half-baked DocDerp fics that are gonna roll through the mods here comes directly from this episode, but the actual episode itself doesn't go demanding anyone's time to clean up after its messes (and I would contest that there were even that many messes it left behind to begin with). You sit down, watch the episode, praise it or bitch about it here in a blog post, and then you move on with your day.
And to our credit, I think a lot of people do let the episode slip away once it's over. The majority of us don't spend time ruminating on its failures. We can definitely be disappointed some weeks more than others, but if this was any other week I wouldn't be writing this blog. Episode 100 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is a special milestone and will be treated accordingly, which is why, arriving at my point at long last, I think people are being too hard on it.
So what if it's fanwanky? This episode knew exactly what it was doing with every single word coming out of every single mouth, eyeroll-inducing or not. I find that respectable, and even a little desirable. There was no reason for that Twilicane, a Discord prop conjured for the benefit of a single sight gag, to make its way back into the cartoon. But it appeared, as did Vinyl's ridiculous bass station and the shark plushie it overjumped leading into the last part of Act 3.
All of that was amazing to me.
Read that again: all of that was amazing to me.
To the friend I was listening to earlier: I'm sorry this episode came across as 22 minutes of facial insult with a captive bolt. Is it that you were mad that it was confirming all of the very worst fanon ideas you've seen out there, or could it also be that some people are finding happiness in seeing those very ideas canonized? Let's agree that that latter is petty as fuck, bro. What does the happiness (or disappointment) of others matter to you when you're watching the show? It's more than all right for something to not agree with your tastes, but if that's because those tastes stem from depriving others of their own immersion in the product, maybe it's time you reined yourself in.
If I'd had the power, I wouldn't have made some of the choices that Larson made in this episode. We've definitely seen more creative things from him (Luna Eclipsed!) that wouldn't imply he sneaks off to Meghan's for Shitty Fanfic Fridays with his favorite beer. But at the same time, some very clever seeds sprouted from this episode: the apparent (if disavowed) existence of a secret agent service with Bon Bon's history, or Cranky and Steven Magnet teaming up to search the wide world of Equestria for Matilda. That's golden. But more than telling people to appreciate the things they liked (obvious) -- I think it's possible to be less harsh on the things you didn't like not because of what they were but because of how they reflected through your ideals and beliefs.
This is by far not the worst episode in the series at all. I think Present Perfect did something very wise in setting this one off to the side in his season's rankings. I absolutely enjoyed this episode, though I can't qualify that in line with all the other episodes this show has produced so far. For all the staff at DHX do to keep fandom influence out of the show, this was the one time they opened the door for everyone. The objective of Episode 100 is too divergent from the status quo to assign it any meaningful ranking.
It's (it really is) an innocuous 22 minutes of television that indulged a little bit more than usual in the ham and cheese. You may go crazy trying to get anything more out of it with another 16 episodes to go in the season.
-- Couch
Thank you for one of the more insightful looks into the episode and its affect on the fandom that I've seen thus far, Couch.
Pretty much agreed. It's like saying Episode 26 of Excel Saga has to be weighed at exactly the same weight as all the other episodes just because it's An Episode In The Series, when it's clearly just a crazy batcrap merry-go-round of everything the authors wanted to cram in there. I actually expected it, if anything, to be much more schizoid than it actually was. Once again, I think M.A. Larson is your go-to guy for "I want to cover way too much territory for a 22-minute show but I want to cover it in 22 minutes."
I haven't actually seen a lot of negativity. Some, of course, but it seems like the vast majority of people are either (a) foaming at the mouth fangasming or (b) taking a slightly healthier "Thanks so much for the episode acknowledging some of our goofy fan-trends! Looking forward to the show getting back to normal territory!"
Note that I'll be ranking it properly in the next couple of days, once I can watch it two or three more times. I've been avoiding saying anything opinion-wise, on my blog or anyone else's, because quite frankly, I didn't see the whole thing because the little girl in back wouldn't shut up. :V
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/10/15/123348__safe_twilight+sparkle_animated_clapping_citizen+kane_orson+welles.gif
~Skeeter The Lurker
I have to say I disagree with your analysis Couch. It essentially reads as the 'It's just a cartoon for little girls, it doesn't need to be any good!' argument, the avoidance of which was the whole premise FiM was written for.
Do we have any reason to expect or demand any given fanon be accepted? Of course not, that's silly.
Do we have every reason to want episodes well crafted and good? Absolutely.
That said, the sole thing I am taking away from this episode is my newfound belief in the Gummy Bhudda.
Honestly... I saw the title of this and worried you were legitimately pissed off. I'm surprised and VERY happy that wasn't the case. Well said, Couchie.
3148196
"It's for little girls so it can be bad" means in my mind "we can halfass this and kids will still watch it," which is the toxic attitude toward children's animation I think you're referencing. I don't get that vibe from "Slice of Life," personally. I didn't see Larson lazily halfassing in that episode (and that's the major conclusion of Couch's I didn't agree with); I saw him making the deliberate choice to go nuts and throw absolutely everything memetic he could find at the wall just to prove he could. Did it make the best, most sterling episode? Questionable. Did it do exactly what the author wanted? I think so.
TL;DR There's more than one authorial win condition, and, (Bugbears aside), we're not being pandered to, IMO. We're being affectionately, earnestly trolled. So long as it doesn't become the point of the show and remains in small doses, that can be a good thing. I think it just depends if your idea of a small dose is "one whole episode" or not.
Pretty much this.
Also PP is dumb.