The Hoof-Thing and Flaw Scrubbing · 5:18am Jun 8th, 2013
Progress report - I haven't been able to do much writing lately as my house is going through renovations so my desktop has been stored away to keep all the sawdust from getting into it. For the past several days, I've been reliant on my Kindle to just browse around and leave the occasional message. That should change as my desktop is now back out and I can resume writing. Expect some delay though, as it is a Fluttershy chapter. In case there are those who haven't noticed, of the Mane 6, I like her least.
The Hoof Thing - There is a scene from Season 3's "Games Ponies Play" when Twilight starts to fuss over Pinkie Pie playing in the spa. Cadance then teaches her that hoof-thing and, presto, Twilight stops. That scene made me uncomfortable when I first saw it. Enough to nearly ruin the whole watching experience. I couldn't quite put my finger on why, however.
Then, recently, I started re-reading some of Limyaael's rants, particularly the one about Flaw Scrubbing. And that hit the nail on the head. That was what that scene was, it was Cadance scrubbing Twilight clean of a flaw. Thanks to Cadance's amazing hoof-thing, Twilight Sparkle will now deal with problems with princess-like grace and poise, which, considering the episode afterwards, is only fitting. Sure, she might still get depressed when the shit really hits the fan, but no longer will she go into panicking, psychotic fits because that's not befitting of a princess at all. No one wants to look at Twilicorn and think of Lesson Zero or even the start of The Crystal Empire. A character flaw established and developed over the course of two 24-episode seasons has just been obliterated by a scene that lasts about a couple of minutes. Thanks to the amazing hoof-thing, Spike's role as the one to try and calm Twilight down and tell her to loosen up a bit is no longer necessary. He can concentrate on more important roles like being her filthy, annoying, sitcom little brother or, better yet, her dog. Truly, the amazing hoof-thing is a miracle. That now makes two scenes I find loathsome in MLP: FiM, the first being Cadance's amazing love-spreading in Twilight's flashback during "A Canterlot Wedding".
Now, I could be wrong. I could be over-analyzing, jumping to conclusions and being too negative. I hope so. I dearly hope to be proven to be very wrong. Maybe the hoof-thing helps, but it shouldn't be the amazing "cure" that Games Ponies Play is making it out to be.
Definitely have to agree with this. I know MLP was supposed to be a kid show for little girls but there is no excuse for terrible and lazy writing. After reading so many amazing fan fics like Upheaval nobody can convince me that this material, this world, doesn't have potential to be something greater. Besides wouldn't it make more sense for season four to be about how Twilight grows into her new role as a princess and while she can learn the hoof thing it could be built up gradually along with a lesson that shows how panicking just makes things worse.
While I feel like the show MLP has made several missteps, the biggest one to date being the sudden transformation of Twilight into an alicorn, I will reserve final judgement until I see what they mean to do with this turn of events before I possibly throw a hissy fit over a kids tv show.
this gets all of my yes
As usual, the truth is probably somewhere in between. Ive been unable to place my dislike of the same things aside from "too convenient" and "too quickly adapted". Now i have a better understanding, id not mind it as much if it was done slower and more properly filled in as RDs character
changesdevelopment have been.As to you "disliking" Fluttershy, i must say youre doing an excellent job of making her most interesting. Not just warming hearts with her, but minds too
Looking forward to the next update
It's called character development. It's where a character changes and evolves to overcome their issues. People complain about Fluttershy all the time because her development doesn't stick between episodes, and now you're complaining because Twilight's has? This show just can't win. No matter what it tries, everything it does is wrong. It's just like my grandfather, except a little girl's show.
Really, really trying not to sound like a condescending dick in this post, but I probably did anyway.
You know what, I could have sworn that this was a show for everyone. Isn't that what its creator intended? Isn't that one of the most glowing praises this show is given? That it has transcended its "toys for little girls" roots to become something for everyone? Then why are we still falling back to "well, it's a show for little girls" every time it doesn't quite get everyone to like its latest move?
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Development requires an arc, periods of introspection and, most of all, it has to cost something. Twilight tries out the hoof-thing, it works, presto, flaw scrubbed. What did it cost her? Nothing. What did it gain her? Another step closer to perfection. There has to be a sense of balance here. No, I don't mean that for every "issue" overcome, a character should gain a new one as if you were balancing a checkbook, but if "development" means that you take away a character's flaws one by one, what are you going to be left with as your character continues to develop? Wouldn't character development be a bad thing then? After all, you're slowly making your character flawless.
Of course this show can win. It's won more often than not. Doesn't mean it can't lose. I love several episodes, find most to be decent and found a few to be not so good. I only hate two scenes. How many scenes are there in MLP: FiM? I doubt the answer is 2. So what's this about the show being unable to win?
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It's not just you, it's everyone. It's unable to win because no matter what happens, no matter what direction it goes or how major or minor an event is, someone somewhere seems to despise it. Even something inane as "Twilight's breathing thing." I really don't see how her not flipping out and giving us a Lesson Zero sequel is a bad thing. I liked Lesson Zero and all, but we only need one of it. And she's hardly flawless just because she's doing a breathing thing now.
And all that aside, how much time does a development like that really take? I'll tell you how long. However long it takes to say, "Dude, chillax. You're going a little crazy with stress. Breathe a bit, and calm down." The reason there isn't an arc, introspection or cost is because it really isn't that complicated, and making a big deal out of it is pointless. As is actually getting angry over it too. Just sayin'.
The bringing thing that only lasted like 3 seconds? I doubt that will ever work for freak out time. Or it will just be forgotten about. I forgot about it, I hope the writers do as well.
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People are people and will always have different opinions on things. Someone's going to like one thing while another dislikes it. Fandoms are not hiveminds. If the only way this show is going to "win" is if people unanimously like every step it takes, then it will never ever win. In fact, no show will ever win. The concept of winning would be something like a round square. You can say it, but that doesn't mean it exists. I'm sure that there are people out there who like the hoof-thing. Isn't it enough to say that it "wins" for them?
And it should get an arc, introspections and cost something. It should be a big deal. It's an important part of her character. I find it to be a major character flaw. I'm not expecting a Lesson Zero sequel. But it should not just disappear with a 3 second scene. And who's being angry? Am I not just using this blog to explore my thoughts on something? Isn't that what blogs are for?
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If you say you're not angry about it, then I believe you. It's just that you have to be passionate about the subject to some degree if you went to the trouble of blogging about it, and passion about something you dislike usually means anger. Sorry if I misread that, though I still think this is making a mountain out of a molehill regardless.
Fact is though, going crazy under pressure was never the crux of Twilight's character. It wasn't even that noticeable in season one. And even if it was, which I guess you believe and I'm not going to argue with you over since I think that's a bit too subjective for me to talk definitively about, I still maintain that telling someone to breathe and calm down when they get stressy isn't an extremely complicated issue that needs a whole story arc to resolve. That's a conversation I can have with a stranger on the bus in about a minute and a half. A person I actually know in less.
And I think you missed my point about the "can't win" thing. I'm not trying to imply that a win would be unanimous agreement of something being excellent, rather that there's a copious amount of bitching about season three and seemingly nothing has escaped being called the worst thing ever by someone. Twilicorn and Equestria Girls are just the biggest targets.
Yeah, for just about any episode in the series you can hunt around and probably find someone who would genuinely argue that it's the worst one yet, but I'm just saying that those people are suddenly getting prominent as of the past year or so. In normal circumstances, that would denote a decline in quality. Whether that's happened here or not is debatable. I think I'm just more easily annoyed by it because for my mind, that hasn't happened, and the only thing that's changed is that the fanbase has gotten more critical lately. In some cases, unfairly so. Which brings us back to Twilight's breathing thing.
Oh God, four paragraphs this time.
I'd talk more, but most of my arguments have already been exposed. Just remember that later in the same episode she is shown hyperventilating, and that the "breathing exercise" is something that Cadence used to do with Twilight when she was a foal.
I could have done with perhaps a bit more of development of the scene, however we also see Twilight try to calm herself with Cadance's trick and it fails... rather spectacularly. I don't think that's the end of Twilight freaking out... the way I personally saw it is that Twilight is learning to become more flexible and roll with things as they come along... but still has trouble with things when they fly off the handle.
For all the times that Twilight used the breathing exercise it was when things weren't going 100% according to plan. But, when the plan doesn't just hit a bump in the road but it turns out they're on the wrong road Twilight cracks.
I didn't see that scene as "Flaw Scrubbing" but... well starting to scrub the flaw. The flaw is still there, and I think we'll still see more of it. However, I think we'll be seeing it in different ways rather then another Lesson Zero.
At least that's how I saw/interpreted the scene.
When all is said and done, Hasbro just needs to keep their hands off the show's creative process and let the writers solely dictate the show's course.
As for Twilicorn, they need to prove that she's not all-powerful now by having her fail in her first mission as a princess, thereby worrying her that Celestia will take away the title.
I had never heard of "Limyaael's Rants" before your post, and I gotta say he covers some pretty interesting topics from the few I browsed. Now despite the ranting format of the posts the author manages to make solid arguments and observations on a variety of different subjects. Gonna have to give it a more in depth look over in my spare time. So thanks for sharing!
But yeah the "Hoof Thing"...I suppose I fall into the category of people who felt like that episode just didn't sit right. In my mind this unease stems from how rushed the events in the episode seemed to take place.
Regardless of one's opinion of the episode as a whole, no one can deny the fact that a lot of shit went down in meager 22 minutes. So when a well defined character such as Twilight goes through rapid significant changes in such a short time frame, one can't help but associate these out of no where developments in a negative manner. Flaw scrubbing or deus ex machina being the most common culprits.
So until season 4 gets underway I'm gonna reserve judgment on the matter. But personally I hope the "magic cure-all breathing exercise" is a one time affair used to lampshade the audience (albeit poorly). I mean who doesn't like watching Twilight freaking out? it wasn't only adorable but made her a pretty relatable character.