Top Ten Things FiM Should Improve in Season 6 · 5:13am Dec 20th, 2015
Well, before you all start asking, the answer is yes. I saw The Force Awakens in theaters, it's a good movie, but I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it. Personally, I found it better than the prequels, but not on par with the original triology. But that's my opinion, and you may or may not have a different one upon seeing it.
Now, let's move on to what this blog post is focused on. This is dedicated more specifically to things FiM could work to correct, or at least handle better, in Season 6. Some of these are problems that only really plagued Season 5, others are problems that have been around for a couple of seasons, or even from the beginning. And I mean no disrespect to the DHX staff.
10. Be More Careful When Selecting New Writers
It seems like every season we get at least one new writer, and one old writer disappears. At first, the writers chosen were ones Lauren Faust had personal experience with, with the exception of Charlotte Fullerton (Chris Savino wrote for "The Powerpuff Girls"). Merriweather Williams made sense, since she wrote some of the best classic Spongebob episodes, and was writing good episodes on "Adventure Time". But lately, several of the writers have come from shows that have not been well recieved by critics, mostly due to their overreliance on subpar comedy. Now, I believe bad people can make good art and vice versa, but especially when new writers from shows that only focus on comedy are brought into a show like this, it worries me that they will not recognize they will need to adjust their writing styles, and not just depend on comedy. Some writers, such as Nick Confalone and Joanna Lewis and Kristine Songco have done well, but others, such as Neal Dusedau, have hit all the wrong notes.
9. Work On Pacing
For the most part, every episode of the show seems to feature good pacing. But there has always been an episode or two per season where the pacing sees either too fast ("Friendship is Magic", "Bridle Gossip", "Best Night Ever", "The Return of Harmony") or too slow ("Winter Wrap Up", "A Friend in Deed", "Flight To The Finish" "Three's A Crowd", "Made in Manehattan"), and this tends to cause problems. If you rush into things too quickly, you tend to glance over important details that make your story strong. But if you take too long to get going, people can lose interest in your story and walk away. A good rule of thumb for this show, is that the plot of focus should kick in by the title sequence, or immediately afterward. If the episode is going to contain any filler whatsoever, it should be entertainable, but not distracting.
8. Know The Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Writers
By now, it should be obvious what writers can do what well, and what they still struggle with. And writers should be assigned to episodes that can play to their strengths, while minimializing their weaknesses. For example, Cindy Morrow's strength is in writing heartfelt, emotional stories, but her biggest weakness is comedy, which always feels really weak. So she should be given episodes with the greatest amount of time spent on emotion, and/or episodes not overly reliant on comedy because of their concept or focus.
7. More Collabarations That Make Sense
Season 5 saw a huge amount of collabs in comparison to the one or two we usually get per season. And just about all of the collabs were well done. But there are still a huge variety of ideal collabarations that haven't yet been explored. For example, Cindy Morrow and Josh Haber could collab on an episode, with Josh handling the comedy and Cindy handling the emotion. Or Dave Polsky or M. A. Larson could lend Nick Confalone or Neal Duseadu a hand with controlling their comedy so that it doesn't take presidence over everything else. Heck, Nick Confalone could probably show Neal what it takes to write a good episode of FiM, without having to completely abandon your current writing style. And if a new writer is being paired up with an old writer, make sure the old writer can properly help the new writer, instead of leading to a clash in writing styles as happened in "Spike At Your Service".
6. Greater Continuity and Rememberence of Morals
Season 5 was a season of callbacks and continuity, and for that I am glad. This is a trend that needs to continue into Season 6, and beyond. It's important to have your characters remember the lessons they've learned, so they don't repeat them every single time they get a focus episode. Continuity will also help to prevent rehashes or retreads, which no one wants to see. Part of what made this show so good in the first place, was that it did not reset the status quo at the end of every single episode. This show was praised almost from the start for the strong growth its characters went through, because the status quo didn't have to be preserved all the time.
5. Stop Relying on References and Visuals in Discord Episodes
Part of why "What About Discord?" bombed so badly, was because it tried to make up for its lack of a story by throwing in as many pop culture references as it could, as well as toss in visual jokes and running gags that Neal thought would be funny. But the more you try to cover up your episode's flaws, the more they'll stick out. Even if your jokes are funny, they can only do so much if your story isn't very good. Likewise, a well placed refernece here or there won't distract the audience if the story isn't compelling. At this point, Discord deserves better. Even if his character lends itself to visual humor, there is more to him than that, and depending solely on visuals and references is taking the easy way out of writing a reformed Discord believeably. While we're at it, stop treating Discord like a villan every time he's on screen. And quit playing up his trickster mentor characteristic, it's getting old. Discord can be a very entertaining and interesting character, if you know how to use him properly.
4. No More Petty/Stupid Villans
Season 5 seemed to really suffer with making its villans symapthetic to the audience. From The Griffons to The Yaks, from Sassy Saddles to Wind Ryder, from Spoiled Rich and Svengallop to even to Starlight Glimmer herself, the villans or antagonistis always came across as petty, and for the most part not very compelling or enjoyable. You want to know why so many people flocked to villans like Trixie, Gilda, Lightning Dust, and even Discord? It's because they were complex characters, they were never just evil for the sake of being evil. They made bad choices, but it wasn't hard to see parts of ourselves reflected in such choices or other characteristics. Only Spoiled Rich and Starlight Glimmer really left a lasting impression as villans, and even then they lost out to more compelling characters. In regards to stupid villans, Principal Cinch from "Friendship Games" and Sunset Shimmer from the first "Equestria Girls" both made decisions that couldn't possibly have had a positive outcome, or depended largely on luck to get their plans to work. Even something of a villan sue such as Tirek was more enjoyable, since the decisions he made were ones that would benefit him, regardless of how they turned out.
3. Don't Focus Too Much on Some Characters while Neglecting Other Characters
With Starlight Glimmer likely joining the main cast in Season 6, we will have a total of at least 11 different primary characters that will warrant the need for a focus episode. It's important that the screen time between each of the main characters be as balanced as possible in regards to focus episodes. The map means it's now easier than ever to justify pairing up two or more characters for episodes, and considering the likelyhood of Discord, Diamond Tiara, and Sassy Saddles playing bigger roles and/or even getting episodes centered around them, it's going to be all the more important that characters frequently pushed aside or neglected be given some love. Cheerilee has only spoken 2 lines since "Ponyville Confidential", Princess Celestia has yet to get a proper episode to herself, Zecora only had the alternative future with Chrysalis in "The Cutie Re-Mark, Part 2" to shine, and although it was great seeing Soarin get some much needed screen time, Spitfire's absence until the end of "Rarity Investigates" didn't really do much for her character after "Rainbow Falls", other than hopefully make her look like a good pony again.
2. Fluttershy Must Have a Better Focus Episode or Episodes
Fluttershy seems to be getting unfairly treated in her focus episodes as of lately. Instead of recognizing that she can't keep forgetting the same morals about standing up for yourself and overcoming your fears, the writers keep rehashing the same basic conflict to where Fluttershy's growth and backbone disappear, as if she were replaced by a different character. There's no excuse for this when Rainbow Dash's ego and hot headness have been toned down significantly in her focus episodes, and Rarity's flaws haven't been exaggerated to the point of making her seem petty as seemed to be the case early on in the show. People get mad when Pinkie Pie is written poorly in even her non focus episodes, so why people don't demand the same for Fluttershy when she's in the spotlight is beyond me. The pony who can stand up to Discord without hestiation, and tell a friend the harsh truth even if it hurts, cannot be the same pony who cowers in fear when she's the character of focus simply because it's easier for the writers.
1. Enough with The Spike Episodes Where He's Incompetent
Even more so than Fluttershy, Spike seems to have bad luck with focus episodes. Season 4 seemed to break that trend by giving him two good episodes back to back, but Season 5's only episode focused on him went right back to rehashing his problems from his Season 3 focus episodes. Spike can be a compelling character very easily, and be given realistic flaws to overcome besides being greedy and childish. If the mane six stopped acting like children after Season 1, then there should be no reason why Spike can't start growing up and start behaving more maturely in his focus episodes, yet still run into trouble. And after "Rarity Investigates", "Brotherhooves Social", and "The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows", the show can't even hide behind the guise of not wanting to develop its male characters. Spike wasn't called by the map in Season 5, but he has his own chair in Twilight's castle, so he definitely needs a good map quest episode in Season 6, preferably with someone he's not interacted very often (such as Starlight Glimmer, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, or Pinkie Pie). That alone would be a good step in the right direction.
And there you have it.
You should mail this to them
Honestly, in regards to the pacing, if I had to pick between things moving too slow or too fast, I'll take too fast any day.
And, to be fair to Best Night Ever, they were telling 6 separate stories all happening at the same time.
Honestly, I think the show has always been good at both of those.
As for the villains, there really are only so many motivations you can give a villain.
And, I honestly feel that Cinch was one of the best villains in the franchise.
I don't know if I said it on one of your past lists, but I'll say it here just in case:
I like what Rainbow Falls did with Spitfire's character. It added more depth to her character in ways that she hadn't received before
Probably because a good chunk of viewers find they relate more to ponies like Flutters as opposed to ponies like Pinkie.
Plus there's the cute factor to consider.
I do agree with number 3 a lot.
Personally, I'd love to have an episode between Scootaloo and Cheerilee
3630679 I would, if I knew the address for Studio B, and if I was certain they would recieve it and acknowledge it was sent. i don't know if they've ever gotten suggestions from fans on what to improve or adjust, and what sort of policy (if any) they might have for such a situation.
3630705 Right
The definitely should do something better than what they did with Spike in season 5. Spike needs love, too.
Agree with all of the above, continuity has often been a hit and miss with the show and Season 5 highlighted it clearly. Although I think it also highlighted that the timeline is looking messed up a little.
Sassy Saddles wasn't a villain, she was an antagonist who believed her model worked in a sense that it would help the boutique. Starlight Glimmer was a strong villain in my book and there are mothers like Spoiled Rich. I think this season had strong antagonists and villains that left an impact.
I have no idea why Gilda and Trixie became so popular. I hated Gilda, her voice, cliche role she played, everything. Trixie wasn't that memorable and Lightning wasn't a villain. Hell, she wasn't even an antagonist and a doesn't get that much attention.
This was a great episode for Big Mac's character and expanding on his views of his role in life and his family.