Season 6 Played It Too Safe · 8:50pm Oct 25th, 2016
I approached Season 6 with low expectations, because I was concerned that Starlight Glimmer would take over the show and change the dynamic too much, possibly by getting her own Friendship Throne. These concerns turned out to be mostly unfounded. While Starlight has had the spotlight in the past couple of two-part episodes, she has been absent for the vast majority of Season 6. However, the show did lose some of its appeal for me, just not for the reasons I predicted.
The season got off to a rough start with “The Crystalling.” First of all, that's a terrible pun, even in a show full of terrible puns, and the episode lives down to its title. It's basically two different episodes that Josh Haber cobbled together to try to turn it into an epic, high-stakes story that it was never meant to be. But hey, at least we got to see Sunburst all grown up.
About a third of the way into the season, some of the episodes started to feel “off” or out of place. I suspect that a few of the episodes were written in response to some of the bronies' questions. For example, “On Your Marks” answers the question, “What will the Cutie Mark Crusaders do now that they have cutie marks?” It's a solid episode, but it would have been better if it had been placed a few episodes after “Crusaders of the Lost Mark” instead of in the next season. It felt like the CMC should have already figured out what they are going to do together and what they're going to do separately.
In fact, this season has many moments that made me think, “Shouldn't this character have figured this out by now?” “Cart Before the Ponies,” “28 Pranks Later,” and “Buckball Season” each had the characters regressing to their Season 1 personalities or forgetting what they should have already known about one of their friends (or little sister in the first example). “PPOV” also seemed like the three friends should have been able to communicate better and understand what the others wanted. I've seen a few fans comment that many of the episodes this season reminded them of Season 1, and some of these fans meant it in a positive way. I don't see it as positive, for two reasons. First, I think Season 1 is perhaps the weakest season of this show after Season 3, and it doesn't seem fair to compare S3 to the others since it's only half length. It's typical of first seasons to be the weakest because the creators are still figuring out what works and what doesn't work for their premise. And second, I always hate to see characters regress after so much growth and development.
Don't get me wrong, S1 is still more entertaining than a lot of other shows with the same target demographic, but it pales in comparison to Season 2.
Why would the writers portray the Mane 6 the way they were in S1? At first I thought the new writers simply didn't understand the characters very well, but I don't believe that's the case anymore. I think the issue is that the writers are hung up on the friendship lesson formula. But what do you do when the characters have already learned everything about friendship? Not a whole lot other than retread old ground.
There's also the sense that the writers sat around saying, “Which TV show cliché haven't we used yet?” Thus we got pony versions of “The Gift of the Magi,” “A Christmas Carol,” Parks & Recreation / The Office, Dungeons and Dragons, a Rashomon style episode, and a “character gets caught in a web of lies” episode. Granted, at least half of those episodes were highly entertaining, and I guess MLP has reused TV cliches in past seasons. But I still can't shake the feeling that the writers are starting to run out of ideas.
The best S6 episode by far was “Gauntlet of Fire,” which gave us fabulous world-building for the dragons, and it gave Spike a chance to shine and show how much he has learned about friendship. Spike the Brave and Glorious, indeed! He is without a doubt the MVP of this season. With “Gauntlet of Fire,” “Dungeons and Discords,” and “The Times They Are a Changeling,” he's starred in some of the better episodes this season.
While the writers seem to be tapped out on developments for the Mane 6, they've found more opportunities to explore secondary characters like Big Mac and Trixie. Big Mac we know fantasizes about being a heroic adventurer like his little sis, though whether he has “horn envy” or simply likes to pretend to be someone else is hard to say for sure. He also used to be a chatterbox. I suspect there is more to the story of why he became so reticent other than the reason given in “Where the Apple Lies.” My current theory is that something more traumatic happened to him to make him clam up, which would cause him to yell, “Make it stop!” when Starlight cast the spell on him to force him to say everything that crossed his mind. It would be an interesting topic for fanfiction, at least.
As for Trixie, I have a confession. Now, please don't get mad at me for saying this, but I didn't care for Trixie until this season. I thought that her episodes were unremarkable and that she was overrated. But this season made me finally see what everyone else saw all along. I saw a witty unicorn who was trying to change for the better but rarely lost her bravado. Her crowning moment of awesome was when she willingly drew a swarm of Changelings to her so that Starlight and Thorax could reach the throne faster. I have to respect her for that.
Starlight . . . Well, she could've been worse. Like I said, I'm glad she didn't take over the show, and I do like her when she's with Spike or Trixie. I enjoy their dynamics. But when she's with the Mane 6, it's a mixed bag. I believe Starlight sees Trixie and Spike as her friends, but not Twilight and the other five Element Bearers. Twilight is her teacher to be kept at arm's (foreleg's?) length, and I'm not even sure how she views the other Bearers, but they're not her friends, because I still haven't seen her truly let down her guard around them. She's extremely anxious about the way they perceive her, yet it takes her much longer than most ponies to gauge how others actually feel.
Also, Starlight learns essentially the same lesson in most of her focus episodes: “Some problems can't be solved with magic, and magic shouldn't be your go-to solution for a problem.” Um, okay, thanks. I'm sure the non-magical human audience will get a lot out of that lesson. I suppose the broader application is “Some problems have no shortcuts,” but haven't we already learned this in “Bats,” “Too Many Pinkie Pies,” “Hearts and Hooves Day,” and “The Cutie Pox”? It makes Starlight seem one-note, so that she continues to come across like a discount Lavender Unicorn. She's grown on me a bit, but my opinion of her started out low at the beginning of the season, so I'm still not a huge fan of hers. I'd actually prefer that she stayed in Our Town, but I suspect that the writers have made up their minds to keep her a Ponyville resident.
There's one last thing that makes this season lackluster to me. It's highly subjective, but there were hardly any heartwarming moments for me. The episode that came closest to making me feel a deep and strong emotion was “The Fault in Our Cutie Marks,” and that merely made me say “awww.” In contrast, last season had several scenes that made me say “Oh my Celestia the feels I can't even take it,” and two episodes made me shed real tears (“Tanks for the Memories” and “Crusaders of the Lost Mark”). Emotions are important for any show to help the viewer get invested and care about what happens, and I believe this is especially true of MLP. But the feels were not strong with Season 6.
Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity to have a big emotional episode was “Newbie Dash.” Here Rainbow was finally becoming an official Wonderbolt, her dream since the first episode. It should have been her “Magical Mystery Cure” or “Crusaders of the Lost Mark,” but instead it was just an okay Dash episode. Another missed opportunity for a truly affective episode was “Where the Apple Lies,” where they could have at least mentioned that the parents had passed away in the flashback, but apparently Megan McCarthy and Dave Rapp didn't want it to be that kind of episode. So instead it merely proved that AJ's line in “Crusaders of the Lost Mark” was the clearest mention of her parents we're ever going to get, unfortunately.
It's possible that the TV cliches, adherence to the friendship lesson formula, and even the missed opportunities for emotional impact all speak to a larger problem of the writers playing it too safe. The only times they did something significantly different was “Gauntlet of Fire” and the two episodes that expanded on the Changelings. While the season finale isn't one of my favorite episodes, it's still strong, and I applaud the writers for taking a risk and thinking outside the box in a way that changes the status quo. Going forward, I'd love to see adventure episodes with the Mane 6 in active roles.
Season 6 did some things well besides world-building and developing supporting characters. The songs have improved since Season 5, and the animation continues to impress. However, I'm concerned that the writers have written themselves into a corner with the formula of the Mane 6 learning friendship lessons.
So, here's what I propose they do to make Season 7 better:
1. Forget the friendship lesson formula and just focus on telling good stories.
2. If you must teach friendship lessons, have the side characters learn the lessons instead of the Mane 6.
3. Concentrate on world-building. Send the characters to exciting new places, even if you have to use the Cutie Map to do it. Expand on species that we've seen only once before. Explore and clarify the magics of the different pony tribes (especially earth ponies, but also Crystal Ponies and bat ponies).
4. Give Spike and the CMC more episodes.
5. Try to tug at the heartstrings more. Admittedly, I don't exactly know how one would accomplish this feat. Maybe they could make that begged-for Celestia and Luna origin episode. Or better yet, let Scootaloo fly.
If the writers break away from the friendship lesson formula while staying true to the beloved characters and preserving the optimistic spirit of the series, Season 7 could be one of the strongest seasons yet. Am I confident that the writers will actually do this? Not really. But I hope I'm wrong.
Agreed on basically all points.
We'll see what happens. Fingers crossed.
Me too. I don't trust the writers anymore.
I think the friendship lessons are part of the appeal of the show for many fans, though I agree the writers could stand to deviate from that formula every once in a while to include more adventure episodes. Originally, the show was meant to have one third adventure episodes. With many of the main characters having learnt their lessons and having become well-rounded characters, maybe now would be a good time to up the ratio of adventure episodes.
I agree that the map is a wonderful tool to send our main characters to new locales. I'm hoping that maybe we'll get another episode where the map sends the entire Mane 6 somewhere again. They could easily do that for a season premiere or finale, and at the same time address the issue of the Mane 6 not having had much to do in those episodes recently. It might also be an interesting idea for the map to call other ponies somewhere, for example the CMC, though perhaps it is only meant to work with the Elements of Harmony themselves.
I hadn't really noticed, but you are absolutely correct that Season 6 was short on feels. Season 5 is a hard act to follow in that regard, though even taking that into account, the pickings are slim indeed in Season 6. There were a few heartwarming moments here and there, but I have to admit that on the whole, no episodes touched me like "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" or "The Mane Attraction" (can you tell I'm a sucker for beautiful, moving songs?).
Yeah, there've been a few episodes this season that had crippling flaws, but that's nothing new. The out-of-character moments in episodes like "The Cart Before The Ponies" and "28 Pranks Later" are frustrating, but last season gave us gems like "Princess Spike" and "What About Discord". Especially the latter fell flat on its face for me like no other episode in recent memory for its sheer incomprehensibility. Like Twilight points out in the episode, her obsessive reconstruction of the events she missed should at least leave her able to understand why the others found their in-jokes funny, even if she couldn't laugh at them herself. But the moment of revelation never came, which leaves the entire episode nonsensical and its moral more than a bit murky. Other episodes made me cringe at cast members being portrayed as extremely OOC, but at least I could tell what the point of it all was.
"Buckball Season" I can't really accept as another example of cringeworthy OOC, unless perhaps you count Applejack and Rainbow Dash pushing Flutters and Pinkie too hard while trying to prepare them for the match. Fluttershy and Pinkie's reactions were entirely okay in my book. Some people will argue Pinkie's case, but I say she has shown before that the pressure of the expectations of others can get to her, and Applejack was really pounding on that "everypony is relying on you" button.
You are right that "Newbie Dash" marks the achievement of Rainbow's lifelong dream, and that this moment passed by fairly quietly. I think that's okay, though. Unlike some other ponies' ambitions that we've seen realized, this was only a matter of time. The episode didn't impress me that much when I first saw it, but the way it ended seems to have become a defining moment for Rainbow Dash in retrospect, having her wrestle her major ego issues and insecurities under control once and for all. Check out how she never really made a big deal out of her personal acquaintance with Daring Do in "Stranger Than Fanfiction", and when she gets called 'Crash' in "Top Bolt", she laughs it off (just like she ought to). Here's hoping the trend continues and this won't be something the writers make her backslide on in a major way for the sake of a friendship lesson...
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The last two Map episodes made me come around to it as a plot device, especially since the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this show has a lot of little problems that are far more detrimental to its quality. And I agree that it would be cool to see the Map send the Mane 6 somewhere for the Season 7 premiere. I doubt that it will send someone besides the M6 on a mission, though.
And I totally agree with you about “Princess Spike” and “What About Discord.”
“Newbie Dash” might come across better on the second watch. I've only seen it once all the way through. I think I'll just rewatch the entire season when Netflix streams it.
Why do you think it would have been important for "On Your Marks" to happen earlier? There wasn't really a lot of room left in Season 5:
19 - The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows - indispensable episode, needed to set up Season 6 premiere
20 - Hearthbreakers - too good to ditch
21 - Scare-Master - Nightmare Night episode; perhaps required for continuity (even if out of order with "Hearthbreakers")
22 - What About Discord - easily the least essential of the remaining episodes; it's still a Discord episode, though... maybe there was a quota?
23 - The Hooffields and McColts - Map episode, required for symmetry
24 - The Mane Attraction - 3rd best episode of the season after "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" and "Slice of Life", even if mainly on the back of Lena Hall's and Daniel Ingram's musical talents. You'd have to be crazy to want to get rid of this one.
I don't really mind that much if certain characters take a while to make their reappearance and pick up the plot threads that were left dangling. It would have been far worse to gloss over the issues dealt with in "On Your Marks", merely because time is supposed to have passed and it doesn't make much sense for things not to be sorted out at that point. I find it doesn't pay to put too much scrutiny on the timeline as a whole, as opposed to looking at characters' personal timelines.
4271166 I don't know, it just felt like a really long time had passed since they got their marks and they should have dealt with the issue earlier. Though maybe that's just a problem with having to wait between seasons in real time: it's easy for me to forget that a lot less time has passed in-universe.
That said, I would totally take out "What About Discord" and replace it with "On Your Marks" if I could.
4271177 Yeah, that may be the hiatus talking. I've had the luxury of not having to wait between seasons until now. If you discount the season finale and premiere, there's only 7 non-CMC episodes in-between, which seems about par for the course.
Overall, I think "On Your Marks" was a very worthwhile episode, dealing intelligently with a lot of issues and options, and not really distorting anypony's character too much in the name of driving a point home, unlike some other episodes we could mention. The CMC start out mesmerized by their cutie marks, which was a very nice comedic touch while ringing true at the same time. I think that's a phase a lot of ponies probably go through when they get their marks.
Then they discuss different ideas of where to go from there, and the beauty is that none of them are wrong options. They can go try out things together like they used to, which is kind of a CMC tradition and might be fun and nostalgic in its own right, even if it no longer serves any higher purpose. They can follow their destiny and try to find ponies to help with cutie mark problems. They can each go off alone to do things which interest them personally, maybe even pursue their individual talents which are after all still part of their cutie mark.
Part of the genius of "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" is definitely the special talent / destiny the writers picked for the Crusaders and the way it blows all these previously described options wide open. The biggest tragedy would have been for the CMC to be rendered obsolete by them finally getting marks in the individual talents the fandom had long since been speculating for them.
Apple Bloom's misunderstanding of what them splitting up to pursue individual interests meant felt a little contrived, but only a little. Given that it netted us a sweet and melancholy song as well as a funny Apple Bloom freakout that was eerily reminiscent of "Lesson Zero", I can easily forgive it. The episode ends with them helping Tender Taps get his cutie mark, nicely setting the stage for further CMC adventures down the line.
Perhaps it's the contrast with "The Fault In Our Cutie Marks" that makes the pacing seem so off. Where "On Your Marks" feels to you like too little progress has happened, "The Fault In Our Cutie Marks" skipped ahead far too much instead, with the CMC having solved a large number of problems and being solidly established as Cutie Mark Consultants in Ponyville, as well as Gabby repeatedly referring to them as the "world-famous Cutie Mark Crusaders". This is clearly an exaggeration borne of Gabby's exuberance, but it's still a little much. This episode should maybe have aired late in Season 7, with at least one or two more CMC episodes to build up to it.
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The funny part is that right after this episode aired, some bronies complained that the CMC got cutie marks in getting cutie marks. I always thought that was a ridiculous interpretation, and I think that's one of the issues the writers wanted to address in "On Your Marks." Like I said, it's a decent episode. I think the hiatus did skew my perception of it, though. Maybe if I binge-watched S5 and S6 back to back it would make more sense.
4271262 What about the contrast to "The Fault In Our Cutie Marks"? Did that progression seem natural to you? Don't get me wrong, seeing the CMC acting as consultants for worried parents (and being taken seriously while doing so) was amazing and exactly the kind of thing I expect when you think through the meaning of their cutie marks to its logical conclusion, but it seemed like a lot of progress to skip over. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced they probably burned past the plot points of what could have been an interesting CMC episode or two, which it will now be hard for the writers to backtrack to considering how solidly established the CMC as an institution were presented as in S06E19.
4271299 Yeah, I agree with you there. It seems like it would take a while for the CMC to develop a reputation for helping ponies figure out what their cutie marks mean. Though I'll take unexpected character progress over regression like in some of the other episodes.
4271305 Yeah, I can see how the writers ignoring all the preceding characterization and regressing the characters to their baseline Season 1 modes of behavior which they are supposed to have long since overcome can be frustrating, especially when it comes to your favored characters. Which incidents in Season 6 do you think are the worst offenders? Also, are there any where you'd say "others might complain about this, but I think the depiction is fair"?
I just hope we get a season 7.
4271705 Season 7 has been confirmed! http://www.equestriadaily.com/2016/10/further-confirmation-of-season-7-3.html
4271800 well thats good. I was starting to worry with the sub-par writing that people would stop watching it. Not that I am really a fan of some of the things they have done with the series. Starlight Glimmer comes to mind.
4271802 I agree. I'm going to keep watching it, I just haven't been enjoying it quite as much as I used to.
4271358
“Cart Before the Ponies” was the worst example of character regression for Applejack, Rainbow, and Rarity. AJ was all about tradition, Rainbow was all about speed, and Rarity was all about creativity. They immediately disregarded the instructions to just help the CMC and took over the projects. And they just assumed that of course their little sisters would want to do the same thing even though the CMC tried to tell them what they wanted, hinting with all the subtlety of a flashing neon sign. Plus the moral was so hackneyed even if you try to look past the one-dimensional characterizations. That race track looked almost like Discord designed it – with that crazy intersection, it would have been surprising if there hadn't been an accident.
“28 Pranks Later” was also pretty bad considering that back in Season 1 Pinkie Pie realized that it wasn't okay to prank Fluttershy, yet Dash hadn't figured it out yet.
“Buckball Season” had some cringe-worthy moments with AJ and RD not seeming to know Pinkie and Flutters very well, but it wasn't as bad as the other two episodes I mentioned because they realized their mistake on their own well before the final act.
In “PPOV” the characterization was intended to be exaggerated, so my biggest issue is that it felt too extreme for the three friends to refuse to even speak to each other.
It seems like AJ and RD got the worst of the character regression this season, which is really too bad because they're two of my favorites.
“Where the Apple Lies” had some issues with the family timeline, but not with characterization. I saw a couple of people on this site who were upset that the Element of Honesty lied, but I think these people fail to realize that the Mane 6 aren't defined by one single characteristic. They are free to choose and make mistakes, and this makes them more human, for lack of a better word. Plus, because the episode was set in the past, the character regression actually made sense.
4272376
Yeah, I agree with this. I don't believe that AJ was chosen as bearer of the Element of Honesty at birth, and it makes sense that she had to pick up her aversion to lying somewhere. Having it happen via this event seems perfectly sensible to me, unlike Big Mac becoming 'the quiet one' based on it which I felt was a little bit of a stretch.
I also hated how the sisters were completely unable to take a hint in "The Cart Before The Ponies". I can see each of them getting carried away the way they did initially, but they should have stopped well short of taking creative control and stealing the show the way they did. Honestly, I expect better from writers even in a kid's show, even for characters that don't have as much development to live up to as these three.
“28 Pranks Later” was all over the place not only with Rainbow Dash's character, but also with its message. Some of Rainbow's pranks were morally okay and actually funny and creative, others were straight-up asshole-tier. It seems they really wanted their zombie movie parody and were willing to make any creative sacrifice in the name of that. This episode could probably have been done in a way that doesn't assassinate Rainbow's character, but it would have required much, much more careful handling than this.
Also, you're absolutely correct about Pinkie refusing to prank Fluttershy in Season 1, and Rainbow Dash readily accepted that. Having her start off the way she did by scaring Fluttershy in the Everfree Forest truly was inexcusable on the writers' part.
I agree that AJ and Rainbow's behavior in "Buckball Season" felt cringy, but its OOCness was fairly mild - well within tolerances for delivering a lesson that didn't seem super obvious and basic.
The three characters refusing to speak to each other in "P.P.O.V." felt a little extreme, yeah. They should be good enough friends to overcome that on their own eventually - I'm pretty sure Twilight's worry over them forgetting what good friends they are was unfounded. Still, it's a thing that happens in real life, and I don't begrudge the writers getting the message of that episode out there. Taking others' perspectives into account isn't something that comes naturally to many people and takes time and effort to internalize.
I'm surprised you ranked "28 Pranks Later" lower than "The Cart Before The Ponies". Rainbow showing zero respect for Fluttershy's feelings, nor any sense of restraint in some of her pranking choices is way worse in my book than what they did in "The Cart Before The Ponies". Of the three sisters, I find Rainbow getting carried away and not letting herself be deterred by Scootaloo the easiest to swallow.
(It would also have been an interesting solution to their dilemma for the CMC to simply switch sisters for the day:
"None of you paid any attention to what we wanted, so we're switching carts. You don't really mind, right? Oh, and we're driving.")
4272593 I'm surprised you ranked "28 Pranks Later" lower than "The Cart Before The Ponies". Rainbow showing zero respect for Fluttershy's feelings, nor any sense of restraint in some of her pranking choices is way worse in my book than what they did in "The Cart Before The Ponies".
The moral was more poorly done in "Cart Before the Ponies" and the character assassination was worse in "28 Pranks Later," IMO. You're right that RD crossed the line in some of her pranks, like the one she played on Mr. Cake. She really should've known better by S6.
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Those pranks were all over the place as far as acceptability AND originality goes.
- Scaring Fluttershy in the Everfree: This is perhaps the worst due to sheer lack of empathy which is totally out of character. Some people say that Applejack saying "scaring Fluttershy is just lazy" is being uncharitable towards Fluttershy, but I feel she has a point. Hitting Fluttershy right in her weak spot is not something a friend would do.
Even a petty bully like Diamond Tiara (pre-reformation) would probably shy away from something of this caliberWell, I guess she did pick on Scootaloo for not being able to fly. The writers have a lot to answer for.It reminds me of Zephyr Breeze throwing out Mr. Shy's cloud collection, which is far worse than anything else he does. Callously destroying something which took a lifetime to build is not something a character meant to be sympathetic should be doing, and the same applies to Rainbow's complete and willful disregard for Fluttershy's feelings. Unlike RD, Zephyr does not have seasons of character development behind him, but he is ultimately meant to be sympathetic, which puts this mischaracterization on about the same tier of awfulness. My dislike of "Flutter Brutter" is pretty much down to this one scene. He was clearly meant to come across as annoying, self-absorbed and kind of a dick, but this goes way beyond dickishness.
The fart cushion: Lame, but harmless. It's funny mostly by way of being not funny, and Twilight's expression lampshading that fact.
The sewing machine cake: This was inspired and clever, and did not do any harm. By far the best prank of the episode. Also, it clearly required Pinkie's assistance.
Moving Applejack's bed to the pig pen: This one is kind of borderline okay. I could understand the target of something like this holding a grudge, but Applejack doesn't seem like the type who would, given that she doesn't mind getting dirty that much. The big mystery here is how it was accomplished in the first place. This seems like it might be challenging for even Pinkie Pie. Maybe RD got Discord to help?
The skunk: I hear that stench is really hard to get rid of. Also, Cranky doesn't strike me as somepony who appreciates pranks in general, nevermind something as mean-spirited as this.
Spike and the scrolls: This one is also kind of lazy - Spike is something of an easy target. Also, I have to wonder where Rainbow got all the scrolls she is dropping on Spike. Are those all of Twilight's accumulated friendship reports? I do have to give her credit for having the guts to prank Celestia as well. It's all fun and games until Sunbutt banishes you to the moon...
Big Mac and the rock: Not very original. This one has the potential to actually be harmful, though I can't really say for sure. Big Mac does have earth pony resilience on his side. Though sabotaging someone who is working hard like that is also kind of a dick move. How did she dump such a huge rock from directly overhead anyway?
Mr. Cake and the brick burger: Uninspired, and also seems outright harmful. Is teeth damage just not a big deal in Equestria?
Cheerilee: Undermining her in front of her students is really not okay, especially with Rainbow being an adult and an outsider to the school environment. It's fairly harmless, but still not well-chosen on Rainbow's part. It's just the right level of not okay to work for the writers' purposes here, though, without harming her characterization too much.
Hiding in Pinkie's closet: Entirely harmless. Probably specifically chosen to be innocuous to increase the disconnect between Pinkie being blasé about Rainbow's pranking and everypony else being annoyed. Some people criticize how much Pinkie waffles when trying to get Rainbow to stop pranking as another OOC moment, but I think the portrayal is fair. Pinkie is clearly torn between her own enjoyment of pranks and her friends' expectations of her getting Rainbow to cut it out.
Finally, Rainbow cookies: Mostly harmless, though not as much of a stroke of genius as Rainbow Dash thinks. If this prank had actually gone ahead as planned, it wouldn't have been anything to really get upset over. The only objectionable part is that she uses the CMC as her unwitting pawns in her scheme, which might have gotten them into trouble with their Filly Scout superiors (since when is that even a thing in Equestria?) and everypony else.
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Overall, there's only a few here that truly cross the line from being dickish to being so unacceptable that Rainbow should not be depicted doing them. A few of the later pranks could probably have been replaced by something else, but the pivotal issue is how the episode started. It set the tone for the rest of the episode in a spectacularly unfortunate way and leads us to put much harsher scrutiny on everything else Rainbow does than we otherwise might.
4272872 Good points all around. And yeah, it would seem impossible for RD to pull off her pranks on AJ and Big Mac by herself, yet we never any see outside help.
I'm surprised you'd actually call the songs of Season 6 an improvement over Season 5. There have been a number of great songs, like Applebloom's song in "On Your Marks", the catchy "Derby Racers" song which keeps that episode from being a total loss (though Derpy beating Rarity's design when they went to school together was also a nice piece of headcanon), or pretty much anything that came out of "A Hearth's Warming Tail". Some people probably thought "A Changeling Can Change" was amazing, too, though I think that it fell just a little short of epicness, just like Sunset's "Embrace the Magic" in LoE. Gabby's song was also pretty great (why are so many CMC songs so good?).
However, I don't think that any of these songs top the best of what Season 5 had to offer. Like I said before, "The Mane Attraction" is among the best episodes of the season solely on the strength of its music, and every song in "Crusaders of the Lost Mark" is top tier, a claim I don't think the recent Hearth's Warming episode can match even with its consistent selection of high-quality songs.
So, what makes you say the songs have improved since Season 5? Do you have specific examples, or is it just the overall quality you are talking about? Looking at Season 5 again, it turns out that apart from the two episodes I called out, there aren't that many other songs in the entire season... Anyway, I'd like to hear a little more on this subject!
4275148 Well, I had kind of forgotten about the songs in "The Mane Attraction" when I wrote that, so I would say that the quality of the songs has stayed the same. "I Am Just a Pony" is both heartfelt and catchy, and "Equestria, the Land I Love" is the national anthem in my headcanon.
4275269 Well, what are the songs in Season 6 that you think are good enough to compete with what Season 5 had to offer, and what did you like about them?
"Crusaders of the Lost Mark" and "The Mane Attraction" are both episodes that made me cry. For the former, it started with "The Pony I Want To Be" and never really let up after that. For the latter, "The Magic Inside" was what caught me off-guard. With both of these songs, it took quite a few listens of them on my MP3-Player before they stopped making me tear up all over again and I could actually sing along. Season 6 had quite a few good songs, but none that had such an impact on me.
"Equestria, the Land I Love" as national anthem of Equestria is a thought I'd had before as well. It definitely fits the description!
4275395 When it comes to the vocal performances, I can tell that certain VAs have either been coached or have been practicing a lot. The "most improved" award would have to go to Spike for "A Changeling Can Change." It's not far to compare this to his attempt at the Cloudsdale anthem, which was doomed to failure, but even compared to his solo part in "I Wasn't Prepared for This" he sounds better. And Applejack's singing in "Seeds of the Past" sounds more beautiful than it has in the previous seasons. Apple Bloom, too, sounds sweet and heartfelt in "On My Own" - but then her voice has matured a great deal since S1.
When it comes to melody, many of the songs are catchy and replayable, including every song in "A Hearths Warming Tale" (even though I thought the episode itself was watered-down as a retelling of the classic story).
4275416 "A Changeling Can Change" is definitely a worthy offering for our first real Spike solo song - I don't think he had more than a couple words in the Season 3 premiere. Spike needed to have a song and this is a good start. Season 6 my have been hit or miss in some ways, but for Spike at least it was a solid success.
I don't think Applejack ever had that kind of song before. All her songs prior to this episode had been cheerful and upbeat. It's good to see her expand her repertoire in this way.
And yes, all the CMC members really have come into their own as far as singing goes. I'm glad they made the decision to dispense with them not being able to carry a tune and went all out for "Crusaders of the Lost Mark". They have some amazing harmonies in their songs during that episode, and Apple Bloom's solo song made it clear it's not going to be a one-time thing.
Speaking of, I don't remember Scootaloo having had a solo song yet. Maybe it'll come. Where do you stand on the issue of Scootaloo anyway? Do you think she will eventually be able to fly on her own? Should she? Is it important that the issue be addressed either way?
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The answer to that last question is definitely yes. It goes back to what I said about the writers playing it too safe. It feels like a cop-out that they've never talked about it since S3. I would feel better if the show said one way or another whether Scootaloo will ever fly. There are a few fanfics I've read that have different examples of where the show could take it. One fanfic had Scoots unable to fly on her own, but gave her a special air scooter, which I liked. A couple of other fanfics came up with magical explanations for her lack of lift and methods of treatment. Of course, I wouldn't expect MLP to go too in depth with magical medicine, but it might be nice to see RD pay for Scoots to go to a special hospital or physician who could help her. Or maybe RD and her friends could find a "cure" while adventuring in a far away land.
4276108 Hm... I don't actually feel that urgent about it. I think it would be cool if she could learn to fly on her own just like Sweetie Belle grew into her magic. I'm not sure I like how they made it canon that pegasi are able to fly pretty much from infancy. I'd prefer if it was something that came with age, though I don't mind Scootaloo being a (very) late bloomer in that regard.
Anyway, even if it turns out she will never achieve flight on her own, it's inconceivable that there won't be some kind of alternate solution for her. If they can just stick a magical propeller on Tank without making any kind of deal out of it, they can come up with something that lets Scootaloo get into the sky, and her being so closely connected to so many Very Important Ponies who can pull strings to make that happen, it's pretty much inevitable. The real challenge will be giving her something that handles the way she wants and that she can get some real speed out of. I'm going to facepalm if the show writers try to sell us on the idea that there is no magical solution for Scootaloo.
4276131 It's been six seasons and more than two years in-show (since there are three Hearths Warming episodes). It's high time they found some kind of magical solution to help Scoots fly either with or without assistance. Plus, if handled right, it would bring the feels back to the show. Though I do agree that I don't like pegasus infants being able fly, but that's been a thing since S2, so what are you gonna do?
4276160 Well, we've only really seen Pound & Pumpkin and Flurry Heart as far as infants go. The latter is a freak of nature that makes no sense within or without the world of ponies, and the former you can just declare stupid and non-canon (as far as using their abilities from birth goes), fudging what actually happend in "Baby Cakes" to work with that theory. If I ever write any pony fanfics, I'll probably go that route. Infant ponies flying and using magic just doesn't make enough sense. They probably did that simply to shuffle the plot of those episodes along without spending any time really thinking about the implications.
4276219 The writers were probably going by Rule of Funny for "Baby Cakes," especially since I'm pretty sure Pound Cake hasn't flown since then. You could say that foals go through a phase where they have uncontrollable bursts of magic but then it settles down by the time they reach a certain age.
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Yeah, Rule of Funny and so that there could be more baby shenanigans to drive poor Pinkie crazy.
That seems worse than just striking the "Baby Cakes" incident from the record. This explanation would actually increase the amount of baby magic present in Equestria, when I'm trying to keep it in check here :P