Thoughts on Season 8 and the MLP Movie · 7:05pm May 17th, 2018
You know... I'd been looking forward to season 8 ever since season 7 ended, which in my view had contained the best season finale and best latter half of a season we'd seen yet.
There were a couple early clunkers but overall I thought season 7 was excellent, doubly so for coming so deep into the series. Even if a few episodes had caused some issues with my canon, I loved it for the whole overarching Pillars of Harmony storyline that culminated in the Pony of Shadows finale and bringing them back into the modern day. It was a brilliant move that opened up a whole host of additional story possibilities I was looking forward to seeing explored in season 8, and in the meantime, we had the MLP movie to keep us happy, or at least entertain us. The MLP movie wasn't supposed to be canon, or so I thought and I was fine with that given its obvious issues and how badly it clashed with canon in places.
And then the season eight premiere came...
The first sign of trouble came right away when they canonized the movie in the first minute, making me grimace. Did I not like the movie? To me, it was just okay, and the main reason I didn't want it canonized was that there are major issues with it including plot holes large enough to sail one of the Storm King's warships through. I could spend another entire blog on it, but let me touch on my main gripes:
- When the Storm King invaded, where the heck was the Royal Guard? Not a spear or helmet was seen in the entire movie.
- For that matter, where was Discord and Starlight in all this? The former could have beaten the Storm King by snapping his fingers but his only appearance was as a sculpture of sorts in the beginning
- Are Equestrians and the princesses incapable of offering even the slightest resistance to invasion? If not, why were ponies shown strongly resisting both Chrysalis and King Sombra in the alternate timelines of the season five finale?
- Equestria is vast; the Storm King only conquered Canterlot with a handful of ships. Are ponies so useless they all just laid down and did nothing? Those of you who know my Firefly series will know I'm not complimenting them when I compare them to the pacifists of the Inland Shores settlements.
- Why did Twilight use next to no magic the entire movie? She's the Element of Magic, an enormously powerful alicorn and walking spellbook, yet she never teleported nor cast not so much as even a single shield spell? The most we saw out of her was making a hot air balloon from levitation spells, which, although clever, barely scratched what we've seen out of her over the years. They already nerfed her once to make Starlight a rival for her, and they just did it even further there, reducing her to basic unicorn power, which she's never been. Where was the Twilight who overcame an Ursa and contributed a quarter of the power that fought Tirek to a standstill? The one who ignited in flames and could cast herself into the illustrations of books? Who could copy any spell she saw and then turn it into her own?
- Why was there no explanation of what the princesses were hit with and why they couldn't resist?
- The Storm King wasn't scary, and the comic relief wasn't funny. I wanted to see Grubber get hit by a Mac Truck.
- The movie had badly unbalanced usage of the mane 6. Lots of face time for Rainbow and Pinkie Pie, less for the rest.
- Twilight went way out of character when she tried to steal from the Hippogrifs. And finally...
- Celestia proved once and for all that the show version of her is completely useless, able only to call for help. A far cry from my vision of her and the one I use in my own stories.
I could go on, but you get the idea. It was an entertaining spectacle and well-animated to be sure, but it clashes with too much established canon and common sense. Had it remained an AU story for audiences that weren't already familiar with the show, I wouldn't complain that much, considering it a one-off that wasn't representative. But by canonizing it, you're in effect endorsing all these issues. If it was aimed in part at the brony community, then there should have been some effort to recognize and address such things.
But for all that...
I could have accepted it if they hadn't so badly screwed up the season 8 opener and by extension, the season. In three words or less, I despised it. Nearly turned it off because I couldn't stand it.
Why? Because instead of an epic quest or battle against a new villain like so many season openers have been, what did we get? Canonization of movie and opening a 'school of friendship' when if anything, they should be establishing a new military academy because it's abundantly clear there are threats out there that require soldiers to combat. Canterlot has now been invaded and conquered twice, three times if you count Chrysalis' stealthy second takeover at the end of season six.
And what made it even worse...
... for me was that the season 8 opener was immediately preceded by the season 7 finale, which was superb. You could have refocused season 8 on the Pillars of Equestria characters and their struggles to adapt to the modern world in context of some new threat or quest. Oh, and by the way... if the movie is canon to the show, then WHERE THE HELL WAS STARSWIRL, FLASH MAGUS AND THE REST????? Why didn't they help or resist, given they presumably faced down such existential threats in the past? Or hell, if you're going to canonize the movie, then at least bring in Tempest Shadow, who was the best part of the entire film! Don't dismiss her with a single line and ignore her for not only the rest of the show but thus far, the entire season. Make her the new Captain of the Royal Guard with orders to whip it into shape!
To the writers of this abomination, I can only ask: What the HELL were you people thinking? You had a ton of new material and characters to use with the end of season 7, and you came up with... THIS?
Why is this School of Friendship theme so wrong?
Well, for starters, there's the simple fact they made the entire Mane 6 the faculty of the new school. Uh... and where the hell are they going to find time for that except maybe Twilight and Starlight? AJ's got a farm that keeps her busy year-round, Rainbow's busy being a Wonderbolt and running weather teams when she's not on tour, Fluttershy has an entire farm and nature preserve of animals to care for, Rarity has multiple shops and a fashion business to run, and even Pinkie Pie has a day job Sugar Cube Corner and informal ones constantly planning parties. How did Rarity and Fluttershy find time to go to Manehattan if they're teaching classes at school? This makes no sense.
But that isn't as egregious as the simple fact they turned the season opener, and by extension the entire season, into an indoctrination for social justice. It was basically saying that can stay safe with good intentions and offering friendship alone; if you promote perfectly perfectly rational things like securing your borders or training soldiers, you're an evil bigot, just like the head of the EEC. You make him a snot-nosed bureaucrat who demands overly-rigid adherence to useless standards, fine. Given the bloated state of modern government, I can get behind that. But when you make him a caricatured bigot right out of the social justice handbook, you're saying something else entirely.
That was the point my lip curled and I got very angry. I watch this show as an escape from such things, and they've in fact pushed back against such topics in the past, like during the initial Starlight episodes when she was trying to magically enforce equality. This time... the latest writing crew has actively endorsed it. It felt like a kick in the gut.
Don't get me wrong...
Promoting friendship and tolerance and celebrating differences is fine. That's what the show is about. Overlooking glaring character and cultural flaws or subordinating your own interests and borders to others is not. I despise the concept of multiculturalism not because I'm a bigot, but because it starts from a premise that is a baldfaced lie: that all cultures and peoples are equals. No. They. Are. NOT. I am not going into examples from real life because I'd get into trouble for it, but let's look instead at Equestria's fictional races:
- The yaks disrespect all other peoples and cultures except their own.
- The griffins have a crumbling society where greed and unwillingness to help others is their defining characteristics.
- The dragons aren't much better outside of Ember, at times combining the worst qualities of the yaks and griffins.
- The Changelings are now neutered and not much fun, having gone full hippie commune and having forgotten how to defend themselves.
In all honesty, I found the past writing on these races quite lazy, giving them some gaping shared character flaw and turning them into rather unfunny caricatures. But taking them as they are in the show, the yaks in particular do not deserve entry to Equestria for the very simple reason that they seem completely unwilling to adapt or assimilate. We've had plenty of examples of that. They destroy things they don't like regardless of the wishes of their hosts yet they keep inviting them back. Given the stated desires of some dragons to destroy Equestria, the dragons are a threat that should be defended against, as are the griffins if they now have an army. That doesn't mean you don't offer friendship, but it does mean you have plans in case your offer is spurned. Friendship offered from a position of weakness is not seen as strength. Not having the strength to resist aggression makes conflict more likely, not less.
And then there's the ponies themselves at this point...
At this point, they seem completely incapable of standing up for themselves and are now totally reliant on the good graces of others. They learn nothing but keep doubling down on the same failed friendship strategy. It even holds for the Mane 6 themselves as we just had an episode by a new writer where it appeared that AJ and RD had learned absolutely nothing in eight seasons by turning a school field trip into a competition, acting like they did way back in Fall Weather Friends. And don't get me started on Celestia, who was basically made out to be a bloody idiot in what I considered a very cringeworwthy episode showing she was completely clueless about acting. Seriously? Even the show version of her isn't that stupid. The only way that would make sense was if she was trolling them the whole time, but she wasn't.
*exhales loudly*
Wanna know who my favorite race is at this point? The Hippogrifs, for the simple fact that they take pride in themselves and their history. The Hippogrif/CMC episode was one of only two episodes of season eight I consider anything more than meh and worthy of canon, with the other one being the Fluttershy episode. There may be more coming, but I've seen little to encourage me at this point after the last few.
My bottom line:
Aside from a few isolated episodes, characters and concepts, season 8 and the MLP movie is struck from my canon, and if this is the new direction the show is taking, I will have little to do with it. Hard to complain given we had seven rich seasons with a slew of wonderful episodes and rich concepts to draw from. I'll take the Hippogrifs and Tempest Shadow from the movie; I'll take the Hippogrif and Fluttershy episodes from the new season. The last, by the way, was the series at its best--brilliant and whimsical, coming up with a premise I'd never have thought of at least would thought could never have worked. It gave us three new unlikely incarnations of Fluttershy, and was utterly hilarious for it. But the friendship school... no. At it's core, it's a promotion for multiculturalism and political correctness, and I think everyone reading knows my thoughts on that.
I'm not leaving the fandom, or stopping my writing, so don't worry about that. Nevertheless, I'm gravely disappointed in the new season and wondering if this is the downslope of the show. A shame if it is, but it gave me and all of us plenty. Nevertheless, I wanted my thoughts and feelings known, and I know I'm not the only one who has them. You may agree or you may disagree with my points, but I'm not going to pretend I'm happy with this season and the show's direction when I'm categorically not.
In fact... I was thinking...
How would folks like to see one-shot story as to what would have happened if, say, the Storm King came into one of my verses, encountering the Twilight + Mane 6 from the Phoenix Wright stories crossed with the Celestia/Luna in the Firefly & Phoenix series? It would be... illuminating to say the least! It would be my editorial statement on the what the show could or should be. Interested?
Wow. I'm ... sorry you don't like it? I mean, I see where you're coming from, and you do make some valid points, but I think you're also missing a few things. I thought Horse Play was a fantastic episode; Celestia was just suffering from the Centipede's Dilemma, and the character moments with her and Twilight more than made up for that.
Regardless, you're entitled to your opinion. I watch the show for comedy, good lessons, and interesting lore, but I guess my expectations are different from yours. I do hope you'll at least give the rest of season 8 a chance, because according to a reliable source, there are some really great things in store. And if you don't, at least we can all agree that season 7 was fantastic, and I can still enjoy your stories. Keep calm and pony on.
To me, it kind of makes sense for Starlight to rival her, in combat anyway. Twilight, as we know her, isn't a very combative pony, and while she may know combat spells, doesn't seem to use them too often, and more often than not are simple Stupefy type spells. It is quite plausible, especially given the pony Starlight was, to study more combative type magic.
As for Starswirl and the others, the brunt of the movie was apparently planned before Season 7's finale. As for Tempest, its more than likely she's laying low as most of Equestria probably hates her for the attempted conquest and all, or she's going around on a big apology tour. Also, the school makes some sense as well, the show is basically all about how combat and the like should never be the first response, diplomacy and reason should.
Plus they probably can't get ahold of Tempest's VA too often
Also, it is quite possible Celestia WAS trolling them, considering her line near the end about her not being such a bad actor after all. Also, maybe she just IS a bad overall actor. Considering she doesn't seem to have had much practice in the theatre, professional acting probably isn't her strong suite. Yeah, putting on a smile and a kindly deamnor all the time could count, but still.
Also, its cause the EEC head WAS a bigoted asshole. Yes, securing their borders and all is good, but considering that a good chunk of the races DO seem to want peace, well, barring them from the nation would only further fuel the flames of war.
While I don't think the show has gone as far downhill as you say, I do agree that the show really sags whenever the friendship school shows up. I personally don't really care for any of the new student characters, as they're just carbon copies of other characters that we like, but without the interesting development (Yona vs. Rutherford, Smolder vs. Ember, etc.). There's also the fact that there haven't been any real superb episodes as of late; I liked "Horse Play" and "Parent Map", but the other episodes have been either "meh" or pretty weak (the premiere in particular).
As for the movie, I blame the writers more than anybody. They didn't update the story or characters enough to where they matched them post-Season 7. The film was put into production back in 2014, and it really shows through the characters/story there. Had the movie actually been released in 2014, I think there would've been less complaints about the characters' power levels and actions. But it was 2017 by the time it came up, and the show had evolved while the film hadn't.
Now, as for the multiculturalism and social justice complaints...I'm kind of split on that. On the one hand, there's definitely been a growing trend of creators putting in multicultural lectures in works. For instance, Season 3 of Fargo dealt with a very politically-incorrect villain manipulating a businessman by claiming refugees and immigrants are coming to steal America's wealth. It didn't outright destroy the show for me, but it definitely made me aware that the creator was trying to flex his political muscles and show that he was "on the level". And who can forget what's happening at Marvel Comics, where every other character seems to go on some political spiel and lecture the readers? Bottom line: It's annoying as hell, and it's often sullying perfectly good works.
That being said, I'm not sure I'd go as far to say it's ruined this show for me. I guess the main reason is that, as of yet, the show hasn't become too slathered with PC or multicultural lessons. Neighsay's racism doesn't invoke anything specific to today's oversaturated commentary on racism (i.e. carrying tiki torches or telling everypony to "Make Equestria Great Again"), and it seems perfectly reasonable for an individual who's lived in a mostly homogenous society to get prejudicial when a bunch of new races suddenly start coming into the country. Yeah, you're right about the other races needing to learn they can't do anything they want, but so far, I haven't really gotten that impression that the students themselves are doing whatever they want and are just ignoring the ponies' teachings.
What I'm saying is that while the show might be having tints of social justice posteuring, it's shallow and short enough to where it doesn't bug me. Now, if they start making things a little too obvious, like having a loud-mouthed orange pony with blond pompadour start spouting anti-Dragon rhetoric or show Equestrian Guards expelling boatloads of Hippogriff refugees, then I'll be more than a little annoyed. MLP:FiM isn't meant to be a reflection of the real world; it's supposed to be a fantasy land where things can work out if you try hard enough. Elements from the real-world are fine, but trying to use the world of Equestria to comment on real-world events feels ill-fitting at best and antithetical to the show's purpose at worst.
Still, I'm going to keep watching the show, and I hope that some truly great episodes pop up within the next few weeks.
I think you’re forgetting the target audience of the show in your rant a little bit, but I agree. At this point, the mane 6 are about as fully fleshed out as they can be. We’ll be nearing 200 episodes by the end of the season, and coming up with new episodes is getting harder. I’m honestly surprised season 7 was so good, considering all the material they’ve used.
This show is probably several seasons past the normal life expectancy of a cartoon for little girls based around toys. I’m grateful it’s made it this long.
As far as your story idea, I’d read it.
Do it. Just do it.
I don't think a fix-fic is a good idea. Might want to cool off a bit before you try something like that. Writing a story purely out of fan rage rarely leads to good results.
4862877
Though I personally like Fix Fics. If it isn't done in rage and it is a really cool AU... It could kick ass. Some of my favorite stories are FIx fic AU's I happen to LOVE Alternate Universe fics especially if they fix an annoying area in a show or movie
I have assumed since we knew about the school and new cast of characters that a spin-off is the end goal.
PS Who wants to start a Fantasy Idiot-ball League?
4862910
Yeah, but Firesight seems pretty angry at this point. I'm trying to say to wait a bit til the rage is past and he can be at his creative best. Sorry if I wasn't clear. ^_^
4863024
I figured that was what you meant. I was just saying that I personally enjoy Fix Fics. Even when ragey as long as it is done well and safely, then there really isn't a problem. Most fix fics are meant to fix something that the author found annoying. Some people can pull off a ragey disposition and write a great story. It's all based on responsibility. Sure it's understandable that you have to be calm and collected or you will let your emotions run wild, but some people can pull it off.
4862804
I'm sorry... but did you just suggest that accepting people into your country to prevent wars is a valid concept under any circumstance?
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/126/314/3cd8a33a.png
4862823
Are you really split on it?
You just said it's annoying and you could do without it and as a counterpoint said "it didn't destroy the show for me..." Are you saying that if I take a baseball bat and shatter all the windows on your car you'll take to the internet and say "Yeah, AJ Aficionado smashing up my car was a major inconvenience and I definitely could have done without, but at least the engine is okay. She's getting me to work and back!"
Are these elements making the story better or serving as a distraction? If they don't help the story there is no upside.
4863082
So preventing wars is a bad thing?
Okay... enough harassing the commenters. I've been eagerly anticipating this blog.
For the record: the major issues you and I agree on with the leftist virtue-signaling go far back to season 6. It's hard to remember every episode but the idea that ponies must cater to the whims of backwards immigrants was a thing back when the yaks were getting their episodes and I was very worried when it started cropping up because I notice meta-narratives in writing very well. It's a keen interest of mine.
Agreed on all points, but I'd like to point out that the SK was also a bargain basement Discord ripoff. I hate the SK. Grr!
As far as the targeted demographic, it was clearly not bronies. And I'm okay with that.
The animation style and pony models were quite beautiful, I give it that. If you turn the sound completely off you get a significantly better movie.
None of season 1 was aimed at bronies and it did just fine on the whole. I feel spoiled just having 'Slice of Life" given to me. They didn't have to give us that and they did anyway. Bless them.
You're a soldier for sitting through the whole thing. I cut off the part 2 of the episode at around the start of the second act (when we got the threat of war idiocy in Equestria sent the other races" rugrats back. Dear god, that episode was HORRIBLE!
Those were ponies. We've established that ponies are white people for the sake of virtue-signalling and pandering to George Soros cosmopolitan-types so who cares about those people! This season is about getting with the times, grandpa, and accepting our glorious multicultural future. Excuse me while I find a bucket to vomit in.
I hadn't even considered this point before and now that I have... I can just feel the rage entering my body again. Oh what a waste of such a great character. What a tragedy...
Season 8 takes 7 seasons of established canon and ignores ALL OF IT aside from the non-pony races. We're even getting bargain bin retellings of old episodes like Fall Weather Friends now.
At *least* we got a fresh and innovative retelling on the Fluttershy battles her antisocial personality episode with 'Fake it Til you Make It". God bless you, Fake It. You rule!
I can't prove this but one of three things happened so allow me to don my tinfoil hat and speculate:
1. Trudeau's government leaned on the studio to full a diversity quota and use the show as a mouthpiece for Canada's multi-culti values.
2. The studio reached a catlady critical mass and made this decision on their own. There's also the possibility that George Soros up and threw money at them, but that's a bit tinfoil even for me. The idea that this guy would need to pay Canadians (to be fair, Americans, Western Europeans and Aussies as well) to sell out Western Civilization is too much for me swallow when there are so many of them willing to do it for free.
3. This was a reaction to the rise of the far-right in politics following Brexit and the election of Donald J. Trump. Almost all of MLP's fanbase is white and white people are the primary force within the far-right, ergo the show is trying to pound down any dissident sentiment within the ranks of the fandom. Yeah, this is tinfoil as hell but entirely within the realm of possibility.
You are polite to a fault, my friend. They made him a straight up neo-nazi sperg, despite the fact ponies have always gotten along with others. This was the guy from American History X hating on foreigners for absolutely no good reason at all. This idea that ponies have some kind of bigoted views towards others is a complete ass pull. Straight meta-narrative garbage imposed on the writing by it's writing team.
Outside of a very narrow band of Space marine RPGs that almost go to the point of glorifying fascism — all of which have been neutered in their 2017-18 iterations — almost all of fiction plays with other races. It's a fantasy staple! They could have had all these races and played it perfectly straight and told a decent story.
Why aren't all cultures equal? Because not all people are equal. You almost answered correctly. You were so close! Ahh, I'll take it for still being more or less wrongthink by the insane standards of clownworld.
I would tweak the wording a bit to emphasize that pride in one's history is all fine when you're proud of one's achievements as a society. When one identifies most strongly with something terrible that happened to them, it can cause friction.
Agreeing with consensus opinion on this. Fix-fics always come off as kinda mean. I see the role of the fanfiction writer to give us stories that the main writers can't (like, ya know, porn
) and otherwise just make things more adult and mature. I will concede that fix-fics have a tendency to soar to the top of the featured stories' list so if you want a story that's going to get eyes on you, I'd ignore me and the rest of the peanut gallery and just do it.
4863134
To be fair, there was blantant tribalism among the three tribes prior to the Wendigo brujah
4863092
I was saying more that I was split about Firesight's observations about multiculturalism and social justice being present in the show, not the presence of social justice elements in the works themselves. Yeah, if there's a fair amount of social justice commentary in a work, it annoys me pretty highly and affects my perception of the work; there's no being "split" about that for me. But what I meant more was that I didn't quite agree with Firesight's opinion that the show was suddenly flowing with a social justice message, simply because there hasn't really been anything in the show that felt like it was relating to some specific political element in the real world. Simply having a racist character doesn't automatically mean it's commentary on specific American politics, just because the concept of racism is hardly anything new and the episode didn't link anything from the real-world to the situation itself (i.e. having Neighsay look like a real world politician).
It's also hard for me to slam the show for social justice posturing just yet, simply because the comics had an instance where that actually did happen. Jeremy Whitley wrote the comic as a specific political allegory, with dragons living in Fillydelphia as a representation of African-American communities in various American cities. Unsurprisingly, a lot of people thought that comic issue wasn't very good, not just because it was trying to link Equestria to a complex, real-world political situation that had no place in a fantasy land, but because it made no sense within the canon of the show (even back then, when we didn't know as much about dragon culture as we do now). That was an instance where any complaints about "social justice" and "multiculturalism" would've had serious warrant, simply because it was clear the author put a political element into the story.
tl;dr version: I'm split about Fireside's interpretation of the season, not the social justice elements themselves. They're just plain annoying.
I agree with your points on the movie but I don't think that the Friendship School is so bad even though it could have been handled better. I think that the best episode of the season so far was the Parent Map.
4863304
Oh right, who knows, we might see her again, even if just a cameo
Season 8 is flawed enough in my eyes; your thoughts on the movie, however...
I'm afraid it sounds like you care more about internal consistency than actual matters of plot.
Unlike Toril and Arda, Equestria is not really meant to be treated as a world for the audience to live in with the protagonists (and Toril has to be written that way, as it is after all for RP games), but rather, a stable backdrop for plot-driven stories, which is how fiction was typically written before the 20th century came along. Fictional places used to be very commonly simply highly imaginative and carefully visually backdrops for plot-driven stories, and even to this day, this style of writing is still being employed.
A great example is the original Star Wars trilogy. Before the sequels, the prequels, and Legends, the Star Wars galaxy wasn't a world for audiences to live in so much as it was a very deeply fleshed out backdrop for plot-driven stories. The result was a trilogy with highly questionable internal consistency, even without prequels, but the plots were far more linear and sensible than the plots of the sequels.
The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi actually have terrible internal consistency. Even with just A New Hope alone, Boba Fett shouldn't be able to easily track down the Millennium Falcon to Bespin, for instance, because A New Hope established how hard that kind of thing can really be. Is The Empire Strikes Back a bad story though? No, because Boba Fett was still was able to find them, that made a more compelling story: Because Boba Fett was able to find Han, he was able to lead the Imperials to Bespin to spring a trap on Han and Leia, which brought Luke to Bespin. Bad internal consistency does not make a bad story. In fact, sometimes, it's best to cheat internal consistency in order to have a good story.
But by the sequel trilogy, the Star Wars galaxy has fully evolved into an Arda of its own right, and that actually was partly what went wrong with the sequel trilogy. The Last Jedi, in a total reversal of The Empire Strikes Back, adheres to all of the Hyperspace rules established in both lines of canon and A New Hope and adheres to Force Powers pre-established in both lines of canon (even Luke's Force-skype), among countless other means in which it pays attention to the internal consistency of both the old canon and the new canon.
...And the plot is just nonsense. It just comes across as multiple rp game sessions happening in tandem that just happen to intersect because the players are all friends and are all familiar with each other's OCs. It ended up making both fans of the old canon and fans of the new canon completely unhappy and remains a very divisive entry.
My Little Pony: The Movie actually continues with the pre-season 8 trends of the show and avoids treating Equestria as another Toril, but rather Equestria serves as a backdrop for the plot, just like the work of Lord Dunsany. The internal consistency is a bit flimsy at first, but the plot makes sense. Let's go over the points:
1. If the Royal Guard was present, and all were able to stop the Storm King's forces, there would be no plot. And if they were present, but unable to stop them, they would just be made into a laughingstock to be curb-stomped yet again and would be a useless note to the story.
2. It already has a buttload of characters who play roles in the plot. Any more would be excessive and would detract from the story. Plus, given how long film development takes, it's likely that their places in Equestria weren't that fleshed out the way they were by season 7.
3. You answered your own question: The show established limitations of the princesses, thereby making it possible to strike at them, so of course the villains will keep doing so over and over, each one likely studying from the failures of the last one. Notice how the plans seem to be more effective each and every time? But that's a matter of internal consistency. For more story-driven matters, it puts Twilight in a vulnerable position where she has to work upwards, and then quest, while not seeking out the over-used artifacts, but rather, allies, solidifying the story's theme.
4. Better question: Why should we care? I just don't see how or why that's even remotely important, especially from a purely story perspective.
5. Now this one isn't too bad. I think, however, this was to stick to what is necessary, to not detract from the themes of the story (Twilight's incredible magics are dazzling...and admittedly at times distracting) and to avoid any "get out of jail free cards".
6. Now this one isn't too bad either! I think that was to avoid "exposition", but really, exposition isn't as bad as it's often made out to be in Hollywood these days. If anything, we could use more of it. Still, in a way, those grenades were very self-explanatory. They're enchanted grenades that petrify their targets.
But I definitely didn't like season 8 as much as prior seasons...but for different reasons. Season 8 was, at times, often more concerned with the consistency and rules of Equestria than the actual plots, character roles, and thought processes of the characters and the stories they partook in.
Mistakes the movie doesn't make.
5243724
How are the two mutually exclusive? Why would I not want characters and canon to be consistent from the show to the movie? And why would the plot of this movie have to violate either? I could very easily rewrite this movie to be consistent with previous canon and plug all the plot holes. And at this point, I may well decide to.
...
"I'm going to make a story about America being invaded and conquered. But because it would be inconvenient to my storyline, I'm going to ignore the existence of the U.S. military."
Seriously? Discord and Starlight Glimmer were VERY well established by that point. There's no excuse for not including them or at least explaining what happened to them. The Pillars were recent, of course, but there's still no excuse for ignoring them given they had certainly faced down their share of Equestria-endangering threats. All you had to do was at least mention them. They couldn't even be bothered.
Or put another way:
"I'm going to write the third movie in the Star Wars original series. But because there are already too many established characters, I'm going to ignore the introduction of Lando and Yoda in the second movie and omit them from the third because they would be excessive and detract from the story. And never mind the fact that I'm introducing brand new characters like the Ewoks and Emperor in their place."
The show began with Celly and Luna being mysterious and powerful figures. They neutered them along with Twilight over time, and unfortunately, the movie was a main tool in doing so. Here's my visceral reaction to that in terms of the movie:
"I'm going assume that Celestia was always a useless figurehead even during a thousand years of rule and nobody ever challenged or threatened Equestria in that time. That somehow, every major villain waited a full millenium until the Mane 6 came along before emerging. I'm also going to pretend that the season 5 finale which showed ponies--and even Celestia--actively resisting an invasion multiple times never happened and ponies just passively accepted their fate."
"I'm further stripping Twilight of the massive magic power she showed in earlier seasons for purposes of plot contrivance and pretend she's little better than any regular pony when she's in fact the Element of Magic and a walking spellbook who can accomplish miracles. Oh, and as a final straw, I'll make her act completely out of character in trying to steal something instead of relying on her friends and friendship to solve problems."
Because like everything else in this movie, it makes absolutely no sense. They knew plenty of bronies would be watching and didn't even try to resolve it or make a coherent plot. It's not that they can't; they've done very intricate storylines and excellent worldbuilding over the course of entire seasons. So why was this was so slipshod?
Okay, we agree that deux ex machinas are bad. So what do you call that substance they turned the Princesses to stone with and never explained?
With no explanation as to what they were, where they came from, or how they worked? I'm sorry, but no. It's lazy writing at best.
As far as I'm concerned, the MLP movie was just a poorly written piece that ignored recent characters and canon in general. I might have accepted it as a standalone AU-type movie, but I do NOT accept it as valid lore because it's too wildly inconsistent with both the previous seasons of the show and my own headcanon. About the only thing I would keep out of it would be Tempest Shadow, but the rest is equal parts headscratching/canon-destroying and should be ignored. It was made by people who didn't know or watch the series, or care about it, and it showed.
We certainly agree that season 8 was very poor. But the movie in fact made massive mistakes all across the board, as detailed above and in my original post. Once you look past the surface glitter it was just a very poor movie, on par with The Last Jedi, which I hate even more for what it did with a beloved series and characters. If possible, it treated them even worse. Canonizing the movie is, for me, the point MLP started to decline precipitously; the one critical decision from which all season 8 and 9 sins can be traced. I actually wished they'd ended it with season 7 now.