Season 7 Episode 14 – Fame and Misfortune · 8:33am Aug 14th, 2017
This post is about “Fame and Misfortune”, the 14th episode of season 7. If you haven’t yet watched it… why not? Go do it! It is a good one!
More after the break.
This episode was incredibly meta and was basically a bunch of comedy at the expense of silly fandom drama, fans in general, and MA Larson himself, all stuck together with a bunch of Continuity Porn.
And I loved it.
I think that what made this episode really work was that the core plot actually made sense for inserting all of the in-jokes. Whereas Slice of Life felt like a bunch of random things stuck together, this episode actually had a method to its madness of meta and leaning on the fourth wall by making use of the Chekov’s Gun of the forgotten Friendship Journal and distributing it all across Equestria. Moreover, it hit on one of the core concepts of the show – the friendship lessons – and really made strong use of them.
All of the callbacks to various moments with the friendship journal were amusing, especially Applejack mashing an apple into one of her entries, and Rainbow Dash complaining about the entries was cute. And of course, Starlight Glimmer having learned a copying spell because of her manifesto (a lovely stealth Markism/Marxism pun) was wonderful.
The shoutouts to fandom drama were amusing, but they didn't really feel like they were something that someone who wasn't aware of the fandom drama couldn't understand (though I suppose someone who was totally unfamiliar with fans in general might be baffled). Toola Roola and Coconut Creme were a more positive audience stand-in, while the fanponies were generally more negative ones, which was a decent bit of contrast, and not all of the fanponies were actually all that directly negative – some were just very fannish, to the exclusion of all else.
I think the biggest weakness of this episode – if it could be called a weakness – was the fact that it might have been almost too heavy on its continuity. A huge chunk of the episode is heavily dependent on references to older episodes, and jokes about reactions to them, and while it was a cute idea, in practice it might have felt kind of alienating to people who aren’t obsessed with the show.
I was also kind of sad that Spike didn’t get to play a role in this episode, with Starlight Glimmer standing in. I guess Twilight having three sidekicks doesn’t really help their screentime.
But given my own proclivity for rewatching episodes, this episode definitely swung for the fences for me. I’ve been pretty happy with season 7 on the whole, but this might be a 5/5 episode for me.
And now, I’m going to nerd out over the background details in this episode.
Apparently I’m a critic in Equestria as well.
I didn’t mean to make you cry, Rarity, honest!
Fluttershy is so adorable here…
"Listen up, I am more assertive! And yes, it took me a while to get there. But can you honestly say you can learn something one time and completely change who you are?
I didn’t think so."
This was a great moment. It simultaneously justified Fluttershy’s behavior and actually made sense in the context of the episode, as well as showing Fluttershy’s own character development.
I think this was the single best-executed bit of continuity porn in the episode thanks to it hitting on a major part of the core of the show – learning from friendship lessons. Indeed, Fluttershy’s moments in this episode felt like they were the most progressive in that manner, as she both delivers a lesson here (that change isn’t easy, but it does make a difference over time) as well as at the end (when she notes that you can’t control what others think about you, but you can control how you react to them).
"Classic Pinkie. She’s even funnier in real life."
"You’ve known me for years!"
This was a glorious scene as well, inappropriate laughter and all, as well as Pinkie Pie being pidgeonholed as “the funny one”, something she addresses in her bit of the song.
"I need a hundred blankets and I need ’em now!"
"Right away, pony who still likes me!"
Rarity is just wonderful in this episode; her stress sewing and her stress couture are both wonderfully Rarity, and there is a great bit of marshmelodrama here. That being said, Rarity being genuinely upset at the idea that others thought she was making everything all about her is actually a nice character moment for her, even if she plays it up in her own particular fashion, and the idea of her freaking out that everyone is cancelling their orders because they’re angry about what she wrote in the journal was a nice touch.
And of course, there’s the RariJack shipping fuel here.
"Can’t you get rid of them?"
"And kick out my own family?"
This moment definitely earned a chuckle from me, with stressed-out Applejack trying to please a bunch of ponies who were clearly touched by her entries, but who didn’t really quite grasp onto what it meant all the way.
The Apple Family Admirers reminded me of a fanfic from a while ago after Pinkie Apple Pie about ponies trying to figure out how they were related to Applejack in order to try and get various Apple family benefits, and Applejack eventually getting kind of fed up with it. If anyone can remember that story and give me a link, I’d be grateful; alas, I think I read it before I started making my bookshelves and the search function didn’t help me find it.
I really loved the photographs stuck in the mirror frame here; it was a nice background detail.
"Uh, Rarity, what are you wearing?"
"My emotions, darling! Stress couture!"
Rarity is just such a gloriously hammy character at times. I love her for it.
"I have to say, your character would have been much more interesting if she’d stayed in Canterlot."
Given general pony naming schemes, I hope “With the Canterlot Chronicle” is the reporter pony’s name. It seems like it would lead to some lovely “Who’s on first?” moments at least.
"My character? We are real ponies! This journal is a record of things that actually happened to us!”
I don’t think you were leaning heavily enough on the fourth wall there, Twilight.
Unless, of course, MA Larson is trying to tell us all that everything is secretly real and he’s just been passing things on from Equestria.
Nah.
"What about Rarity? Are we really supposed to believe anything she wrote in there?"
Poor Rarity. She’s such a nice pony, too!
I wonder why Daisy has such a grudge against her.
Probably because Spike buys all of his “anonymous bouquets” for Rarity from Roseluck.
”Twilight was better before she got wings!”
I do love that they made an old pony complain about something that happened four and a half years ago.
But of course, Larson had to lob some tomatoes at himself.
The Fluttershy fan in the background here is adorable.
Of course, the glasses pony doesn’t even recognize that she’s upsetting the pony standing right next to her...
“Are Pinkie Pie and Applejack related or what?”
This is a pony asking the real questions.
Probably because he wants to know if it is okay to ship them.
Seriously, dude, they’re like, third cousins! And both girls anyway, so inbreeding couldn’t happen anyway!
Just ignore the “magical lesbian spawn” tag on Derpibooru for the purposes of this argument.
Seriously, MA Larson was just teasing the shippers here. Having Rarity use Applejack as a fainting couch? For shame!
“And I can be too eager to please. There’s such a thing as being too honest, too!”
No, Applejack! Confess your feelings! Look at what happened to Spike when he didn’t! He didn’t even get in this episode!
Incidentally, I have a fanfic idea based on this moment…
"Ponies think I’m all bubbles and laughter! That I don’t seem sincere."
Pinkie Pie giving herself psychotherapy was amusing, doubly so given the Groucho Marx glasses, but what I thought was a really lovely little detail about this scene is that it is a pop-out book – you can see that the furniture, clock, fern, and painting in the background are all 2-dimensional pop-outs. It was a very nice little touch.
Incidentally, while I don’t have a corresponding screenshot for it, there’s another very cute Pinkie Pie touch as well – at the very end of the song, during the final refrain, if you watch/listen closely, you can see that Pinkie Pie mistimes the final verse, thereby singing it just a bit after everyone else. It was very cute to make a song about flaws contain a deliberate flaw like that. As opposed to Applejack just trying to cram her overly long line in there, which came off as the songwriter just not bothering rather than an intentional flaw.
Of course Fluttershy gets a reference to the Birth of Venus.
Appropriate, though, for a former supermodel.
"Reckon we still have to deal with them, don’t we?"
I loved Applejack ruining the moment at the end of the episode with her note that while they had resolved their internal concerns about the journal not helping anyone, they still have to deal with all the rabid fans outside.
Something I’m sure MA Larson has never had to deal with himself.
I JUST WANTED TO ASK YOU ABOUT THE RAINBOOM THING!
Ahem.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this episode. What was your favorite part? What did you think of what it did? Did the meta work for you, or was it too meta for your tastes?
I loved this episode. I've had mixed feelings about meta episodes before, but this hit it right out of the park, to the point that I might link to the song during particularly stupid arguments.
On another note, has anything signposted the end of G4 this hard before? The characters are literally singing about their own character arcs. Personally, I'm just about ready to move on, whether that means G5 or leaving the band-wagon entirely. I'm glad that the show-runners appear to feel the same way.
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Season 8 has been confirmed.
I'm pretty sure that the show is going to keep running as long as it keeps making Hasbro gobs of money.
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Even if they do an informal passing of the torch, it'll still be G5. Or G4.5. I feel like they're running out of stories to tell with the main six. Eventually they're going to move on, simply to get away from all the baggage that comes from seven seasons of continuity.
And even if they continue on the same track as before, I'll still bear this in mind. It feels like a send-off.
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Well, I mean, the show ended back in season 3, when Twilight got her wings.
Everything since then has been bonus material. :V
I think that there's lots of stories to tell with the characters, if they choose to keep going. That said, they are definitely making more use of the extended cast.
Meh, "Stranger Than Fan Fiction" did it better. I had fun and all, but the satire here was not particularly deft and came across as redundant to that episode with less love and more snark.
Of course, this episode is critique-proof. Anyone wanting to shut me down right now has the world's easiest method right at their fingertips.
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Twilight got her wings, but there were still some other stories to tell. Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy weren't done yet, Twilight got a new arc, and Applejack and Pinkie were pretty much fulfilled from the beginning. But after season six, it does feel like bonus. I might be slightly biased by my late entry into the fandom (circa 2015), but now it feels like we're mostly done with every character.
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The only one of the mane six who didn't have a "complete" arc at the end of season 3 was actually Rarity; everyone else's arc was actually done by then. Fluttershy had become more assertive and could stand up to Discord, Rainbow Dash got into the Wonderbolts (remember, Wonderbolts Academy ended with the implication that she was up to snuff for the team), Twilight completed her arc, Applejack's arc was actually more or less dealt with in season 2 (her arc, incidentally, was understanding that she could rely on others just as others relied on her), and Pinkie Pie didn't really ever have an arc. Scootaloo finally got to bond with Rainbow Dash, and Sweetie Belle got to bond with Rarity.
The show could have plausibly ended at the end of season 3 and it wouldn't have felt like it was cut short.
They ended up extending things considerably after that point, which is fine, but the show's first three seasons had a complete arc that was finished.
Of course, they also made a total hash of the CMC's arc due to poor writing, but that is neither here nor there.
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Fair enough. I can't really argue with you there. Most of my MLP viewing experience has been with seasons 5-7, so I'm super biased. Still, I feel like awful, continuity ignoring episodes have become more frequent, while significant additions to character and world have become less frequent. There's going to be a soft-reboot sooner than later, like in any super long-running universe.
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I feel like the nadir of the show was season 4 and season 5; I admittedly still haven't seen all of season 7, but in terms of season 6, only The Gift of Maud Pie and Applejack's Day Off were all that bad.
It should be remembered that season 6 saw Rainbow Dash join the Wonderbolts, Starlight Glimmer join the mane 6, Ember showed up for the first time, Thorax and the Changelings reforming... those are all fairly significant things. TBH, they've concluded a major arc in every season since season 1 - season 2 had Applejack's initial arc conclude, season 3 had Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Scootaloo all get their payoffs, season 4 saw Twilight get used to being a princess and Rainbow Dash join the Wonderbolts Reserves, season 5 saw Rarity open her anterlot boutique and the CMC get their cutie marks (badly mishandled as it was)...
So I'm not sure I can really say that the show has failed on the "getting stuff done" front.
There are more bad episodes now than there were in seasons 1-3, but... I dunno. I don't feel like it has gotten worse since season 4, and if anything I think it has gotten better since the start of season 6. While Starlight Glimmer isn't my favorite character, I think that she's helped them get some idea of structure that they lost when Twilight stopped being the main character.
What episodes did you feel were really bad?
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Perhaps. One way or another, I'll give the writers the benefit of the doubt for now. Maybe I'll retreat to fanfiction and nostalgia, or maybe I'll keep up to date with MLP. Either way, I appreciate the ride.
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Stranger Than Fanfiction had a different focus; Stranger than Fanfiction was directed at fans, while Fame and Misfortune was directed at creators. Stranger than Fanfiction's moral was that it was okay to like the same thing for different reasons, while Fame and Misfortune was about the fact that creating stuff can result in unintended consequences and many people may miss the point, but it is still worth doing because it ultimately does make the world a brighter place for many people.
So I don't really feel like the two were redundant because they were approaching things from different directions.
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Rarity's Peek Behind the Boutique was directed at creators. This episode was not so much directed at creators as it was using the Mane 6 as authorial stand-ins. To me, the vibe was not "Look, creators, this is what you should do!" and more "Look what we have to deal with!"
As a complete aside, I'm curious about the convention of italicizing individual episode titles. I was always taught to italicize the show title and quote-offset episodes. Am I in the wrong?
I really loved this episode.
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Nah, I'm pretty sure you're right, though allegedly according to this both are potentially correct, though quotation marks are standard.
It makes sense, really; you use quotation marks for some smaller thing (like, say, a chapter in a book or an article in a magazine); an episode is a sub-unit of a TV series, so you'd refer to it as Star Trek's "The Trouble with Tribbles". On the other hand, you might view each episode as an individual unit, and the various sections of it as a sub-unit. For example, an episode of Rescue 9-1-1 has multiple subdivisions itself, each of which would be properly encompassed in quotation marks, like a chapter in a book or an article in a magazine, with the episode as a whole being italicized, as otherwise it would be "Episode 1.1" "Parachute", which looks kind of weird and would be clearer as Episode 1.1 "Parachute". Of course, if you refer to the whole thing (Rescue 9-1-1's "Episode 1.1" "Parachute") it looks kind of weird and it is hard to tell if Episode 1.1 is called Parachute, or if it is referring to a subunit of Episode 1.1, so you'd... probably want to write it a different way to avoid that being confusing.
So for instance, Rarity's Peek Inside the Boutique itself contains three episodes, "Fashion Do's and Don'ts", "Fashion vs Function", and "Customer Critiques". But you might also refer to it as My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic's "Rarity's Peek Inside the Boutique" in a different context.
I think in a formal bibliography, the episode titles would be put in quotation marks in most styles I remember.
Given that the episodes of MLP don't have subdivisions, it likely makes little sense to italicize them, and thus there's no reason not to put them in quotation marks. And given that the APA suggests that you should put them in quotation marks, that's probably the right way to go.
4634037 100% Agree, both on the issue, and that it is to easy to just shout down anyone with any legit issues with the ep as just 'too sensitive'
This, was not a well written story, at all. It relied wholly on the allegory for the sake of telling a good, self contained narrative, to the point of sacrificing in 'verse logic. That every, single, pony in existence except two fillies would become such utter morons and assholes, that things escalate to THAT point, to the point of ruining their entire lives, and yet the solution is "Just ignoring it till it goes away. Ummm these are not issues you can 'ignore' it only works as 'ignore what these are allegories for' but the actual problems... Rarity's business was failing, AJ's farm was overrun with freeloaders making it impossible for her family to work and mooching off of and draining their stores, Fluttershy and RD are both harassed 24/7 just in different ways. None of these are issues that can just be ignored, yet, somehow, it's acceptable to just, not resolve them, because it not 'about' them, it's about the allegory, not telling a story that makes sense in and of itself.
It pushed the negative aspect full force to the point of outright cynicism that nopony in all of Equestria except those two fillies wasn't an asshole about everything and could never change, just get bored and go away.
The idea was sound, many of the jokes were great and spot on, and this really could have been a good way to poke fun at foibles and issues with fandom, like Stranger the Fan-fiction was, but they just went too far with it and pushed it from that, into the worst kind of strawmanning. While leaving the narrative itself incomplete and unresolved.
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When? There haven't been ANY outright 'continuity ignoring' eps.. at least till this one, or at least all others after this one because of it, given the shear size of the issues they were facing, and yet none of this will ever be a problem after, without any actual resolution being given.
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I mean, the show is a cartoon. Everyone wanted Twilight's ticket in "The Ticket Master". Everyone in Ponyville hid from Zecora in "Bridle Gossip". Everyone in Ponyville hid from Apple Bloom in "The Cutie Pox". Everyone obsessed over Fluttershy in "Green Isn't Your Color". That's just off the top of my head; I'm sure it has happened other times as well.
The sort of mass crowd overreaction is common in MLP. Part of it is that it is funnier that way. Part of it is that it serves economy of detail, because everyone who shows up on-screen is relevant to the plot.
And even still, this episode did include some ponies who didn't make an excessive nuisance of themselves, like the one random pony who got Pinkie Pie to sign their book; apparently before Twilight came by, a number of ponies had come by Pinkie Pie without any sort of severe incident. The ponies who were the most obsessive were the ones focused on because they were the ones who were causing the problem that the characters had to deal with.
As far as criticisms go, this is a bit silly; they've been pulling this general gag of "everyone does some silly thing that causes trouble for the main characters" since the third episode of season 1. Plus, they aren't going to focus on the random ponies who don't really care because they do nothing to advance the plot or conflict or anything.
The core of the story was the characters figuring out that they couldn't control people's reaction to their work, but they could control how they themselves reacted to it, and it was all worth it because it did improve the lives of some people.
I mean, the "resolution" to most of it would just be kicking people off of Sweet Apple Acres and ignoring the fanponies until they get bored and go away, which isn't really that fun to watch.
Besides, not actually resolving the "big" problem is funny. This is also a gag they've pulled before; "Swarm of the Century" ends with them managing to see Celestia off... before realizing oh right, Ponyville got totally wrecked by the parasprites, meaning that they accomplished the little task (Celestia not seeing them having made a hash of things) while forgetting the larger one (Ponyville got wrecked).
There have been a number of continuity errors or weirdness. Heck, "Applejack's Day Off" in general is just weird, as was the dragon code episode whose name I forget way back in season 3 where Spike randomly became completely inept at everything, even things he'd previously demonstrated himself to be good at. Then there was "Crusaders of the Lost Mark", which ignored all the special talents which the CMC had been indicated to have since their introduction all the way back in season 1. And there's the problems with the depiction of cutie marks between various episodes; when they got stripped of their cutie marks in season 5, it didn't work the same way as when their cutie marks were swapped in season 3, and the stripping of the marks in season 5 also didn't make much sense in the context of the lessons to the Cutie Mark Crusaders about their marks coming when they found their special talents, not the other way around.
She's probably just one of those ponies who finds out that ponies are out in the streets, holding signs and being angry, and wants to fit in.
Maybe she's got one of Iron Will's audiobooks.
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Hey now, being perpetually outraged by everything, no matter how contradictory, is a lot of work!
i.imgur.com/vb2Y8Ek.jpg
Or maybe she's just a professional straw man.
4634072 And all the first examples were primarily season 1 or 2 eps, back when Ponyville was portrayed as a much smaller town. Yes it often has crowds acting overdone, but this was pushing it to far, doubly so if you take the allegory aspect, because it ignores that it is not 100% of fans that act this way, but the story makes it out to be that way, it never offers a contrast beyond two fillies who actually got the message, making the cynical aspect take the fore and making it come off far too mean spirited. Rather then show a balanced, actually realistic look at it, ( like with Quibble) that used it to poke fun at the more extreme fans, while making clear they are not the whole. It reduced the whole thing to nothing but a strawman.
I did not find not resolving the actual real issues they are facing that are ruining their lives 'funny'. How does Rarity just 'ignore till it goes away' her business being ruined? So Fluttershy should just ignore that she is getting harassed 24/7? It was just poor story telling because they didn't care about that, didn't care about what was actually going on in Equestria, just about their allegory, which is a large reason I dislike allegory in general, because it far to often leads to that sort of thing, where telling a story gets pushed aside for making a point.
AJ's Day off, not seeing the oddness (continuity wise at least).. yeah the writing was weak and the ep was just.. pretty much BORING, I'll give it that, didn't much care for it and yeah it was oddly done, but not continuity ignoring. Spike at Your Service, oh very much yes, but that was a Merriwether Williams ep and consistent characterization was never her strong suit. Characters bent to be what her story needed them to be. Not saying there are not eps that have issues, but few have any major continuity flaws that can't just be chalked up to simple mistakes, and none that cause any major issues.
And CMC thing... so? it didn't outright ignore it, each of them has their own version of the CMC mark with a nod to their individuality. Cutie Marks are not just about what you are 'good' at, it's about what you WANT to do, who you are, what it is the drives you, gives you purpose. Just because Sweetie enjoys singing and has a talent for it, does not mean she needs to become a big star of devote her whole life to it. Same for Scoots and her skill with her scooter. Yes they each had talents, but not a driving, "this is what I want to do with my life" driving purpose or knew what it is they wanted to do, who they wanted to be. until they realized just how much helping others, together, meant to them. It didn't 'ignore' anything that came before, they are still part of each of them, it simply made clear, that doesn't have to be who they are on the whole.
This was... This was an episode. There were times where the metareference got almost uncomfortable, but it never failed to please. Though I am with Applejack at the end; they never resolve the still-angry crowd beyond Rarity dropping a line about fads. This seems less like a fad and more like an incipient religious schism. I can only assume Twilight came back and gave another dose of the Royal Canterlot Voice informing the squabblers that she had dungeons and wasn't afraid to use them.
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img.picturequotes.com/2/2/1817/im-so-angry-i-made-a-sign-quote-1.jpg
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Make it happen.
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I just reread your comment and noticed the question at the end.
A lot of it can be summed up as either willfully ignoring character development or carefully writing around it. I think that both are signs that some sort of reboot is necessary.
Call it laziness, but I don't really want to go through each slice-of-life episode individually. Basically, lots of them can be broken down to "conflict between close friends is hard to write, so let's just pretend they barely get along at the best of times, all for the sake of plot." See Castle Sweet Castle in season five; 28 Pranks Later, Buckball Season, and P.P.O.V in season six; and Honest Apple in season seven. Again, these might be less frequent or less severe than in previous seasons, but the plots of these episodes still seem to be fighting against the established relationships between the main characters.
A related but separate problem affects the adventure episodes: power creep. Tirek was mostly dealt with by a hastily set up plot device and magic lasers, and he represented the most physically imposing challenge Twilight would encounter. After that, all of the big, bombastic two-parters have basically had to ret-con or ignore established character proficiencies to create tension.
Cutie Map magically removed everyone's competencies while the characters pretty much put up no resistance. Cutie Re-Mark used time travel and a suddenly buffed antagonist to deal with the problem. I enjoyed this two-parter, but it's the exception rather than the rule. I think it flourished under its restrictions, while the rest seemed to suffer for them. The Crystalling also inexplicably crippled the main characters, requiring a mostly unforshadowed third party to solve something that Twilight would have otherwise been suited to solve. The less said about the season six finale, the better. Suffice it to say that the only way that particular writer/writers saw to work around the power creep was to remove most of the overpowered characters off-screen with a hand-wave and then introduce a Deus ex Machina to cripple the leftovers.
And so far season seven has done away with adventure episodes, probably for this exact reason. I'm in favour of this change, but I think it only happened because the show runners recognized that the restriction was hurting FiM overall.
Don't get me wrong, I still love some of the episodes the writers are producing—episodes like The Perfect Pair and Fame and Misfortune are why I watch the show in first place—but they're clearly having issues dealing with the baggage of seven mostly full-length seasons.
There are plenty of stories left to tell about the main six, but how many are appropriate for their target demographic? Just about any interpersonal problem suited for children could also be solved by "listen to your friends, try to empathize, and work together on a solution."
With guest writers regularly producing low-quality episodes, wouldn't it be easier to whip up a new cast than try to worm around the show's already fragmented history?
Plus, new toys for each new pony, right?
EDIT: Then again, I'm still thinking from the perspective of an adult fan--the non-lucrative side of the audience.
First I wish to thank you, thank you so much for writing a long essay on why this episode was fun. I usually am not effected by other fans but I was getting uncomfortable with the hate of some fans. Some of which I have good relations with and thus I am trying to avoid starting an argument.
And honestly episode was fun and yes it made fun of some elements of fandoms in general, it just used some brony examples as punch line. And being able to laugh at yourself is a virtue in my book. And it was vindicating to be able to laugh at some of the less pleasant parts of fandom. I still enjoyed seeing our favorite ponies handling the problem and well I did appreciate that the show didn't just "fix" complainers. And I can't pick favorite part because so many parts were funny to me. And the message was valuable.
I suppose I do have complaints, such as episode just not having enough room to deal properly with the issues that each mane character was facing. And it is far too easy to miss that there were in crowd fans of each individual pony and instead most get idea that all ponies hates Rarity, Fluttershy and Twilight.
Oh and I wish Starlight broke few kneecaps off screen.Again thank you!
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Yep. The comments to the followup on EQD were chock full of of people who were firmly convinced that now, thanks to this episode, you aren't allowed to offer up any criticism of MLP at all.
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Anterlot, Capital City of the Deer. We'll remember this prediction in the future.
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I'm confused how you think this is an example of them "barely getting along". In fact, they all try to be nice about the (obviously horrible) ideas that each other had about decorating Twilight's castle, and then get frustrated with each other because no one really has any solutions, so they're just nit-picking.
A major point of the show is that the characters are very different, but are still friends. In fact, part of the strength of their friendship comes from the fact that they all recognize each other as unique individuals and value the ways in which they are different. They support each other in their endeavours, even if they aren't up their alley; Applejack doesn't really care much for fashion and whatnot, but she's willing to pitch in to help Rarity when it is necessary, and they all compliment each other on their successes, even if they don't really care that much about them per se - because they care about the person who is accomplishing the thing.
They do have conflicts, just like real friends do. Doesn't mean they don't love each other.
I felt that the season 5 episodes did a fine job with it; Starlight was a different sort of threat. She seems to have the same special talent as Twilight (magic) and is extremely magically adept. It isn't that unbelievable; Twilight is extremely powerful, but she was extremely powerful even when she was a unicorn, and her brother is as powerful as an alicorn as well. Likewise, the season 6 opener was fine - the threat there was due to a magical artifact being broken which was keeping nature at bay, and the episode was them scrambling around to fix a problem rather than them fighting something.
I mean, you can blast a stormcloud, but that only keeps it at bay for so long.
I can't really speak to the season 6 finale, because I still haven't seen it. Shh.
Yes, I've watched some episodes out of order.
Well, the reality is that Twilight has always been extremely overpowered relative to ordinary threats and the rest of the group. All of the adventure episodes have always been about facing an OP foe who could only be defeated by Our Powers Combined, because otherwise Twilight would just solve the problem.
I'm sure Twilight does resolve some minor crises offscreen with magic, and it is boring.
This isn't a new problem; it is actually intrinsic to the show. Twilight's special talent is magic, and the only other characters who have special talents which are all that remarkable in terms of raw power are the two pegasi. The group is not designed as a balanced adventuring party at all.
If you want to write an adventure episode using the cast, you really need the rest of the party to be doing something suited to their skills/ability level, and then have Twilight deal with some other threat. You could do an adventure story based on the Princesses and the alicorn-level unicorns dealing with some threat, or you could do a story about the rest of the mane six dealing with some problem while Twilight was away/busy/dealing with the other half of the threat, or you set up some tasks that require the rest of the cast's abilities (problem solving/skill-based tasks which suit them; for instance, trying to figure out their way through a place full of traps/riddles/ect. or what have you).
You can't just throw a D&D style adventure at them and expect Twilight not to overshadow the rest of the mane six.
Adventure episodes are hard to write for the cast of the show, which is why most of them aren't very good.
Hundreds?
I mean, that's how every interpersonal problem is ultimately resolved?
lol
Wasn't the ultimate point of Toola Roola and her friend that as long as little fillies, the target demographic of the book, enjoyed it, the creators could feel free to ignore all complaints from angry fans?
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This is all I have to say other than "good episode."
This episode does not even merit the title "worst episode ever" because it is not an episode so much as 22 minutes of butt-hurt rant by anonymous show writers almost on the level of a fic writer who can't stand getting comments, but worse because they're getting paid for their shit and charging the very people they're insulting $20 an autograph. My true feelings on it here.
My view on the episode found here.
I have a bit of a split opinion on this, I agree that a character with flaws is far more interesting then a character without flaws, AKA, a Mary Sue. It's acceptable for a character to have flaws.
I can agree with Fluttershy on one thing, one event or life lesson doesn't automatically change who you are. It takes time for them to develop and change.
I was a little offended by the writers saying that fans are missing the main point of the show, the Aesop, the friendship lessons, the messages they're trying to say. But I think they missed one key detail. Just because the Aesop is the main point of the show doesn't make it the only point!!! The story, the characters, and the development are just as important as the Aesop!!! In fact, the story and the characters are the speakers for the Aesop and are the ones who communicate to the audience! If the story and the characters aren't what you intended, then the story could accidentally give off the wrong kind of message!
Though the fact Spike wasn't in this episode bothered me. He wrote at least 10 friendship lessons, and the fact he wasn't in this episode came off as the writers don't give a shit about him, or a lot of ponies don't care about him.