That's NOT the message of the episode! · 8:08pm Aug 15th, 2017
Now, the negativity towards the recent episode, I believe, comes from a misunderstanding about the message.
The message isn't "If you criticize us, you're clearly in the wrong and should shut the f*** up."
That's not the message. Though I can see how the more critical, sensitive, etc would take it that way.
The real message is...
"We hear your criticisms, some good, some bad, and here are our responses to some of them (fluttershy especially). And in the end, we'll do the show the way we feel is best. We're not perfect writers (the song), but we certainly do our best. We can't change what was written because it's already aired (the whole 'they actually happened to us' bit). So please, we're tired of the complaining.
"Our goal is to teach friendship lessons. If you're not catching those, you're entirely missing the point of the show (the friendship lessons book). We know that we've gotten through to a few of you and helped you to become better people, and that is why we do this, and it makes it worth all of the criticism (the end of the episode). So the haters will be haters, but we're not doing this for them. We're doing it to help people who need it, and to entertain those willing to enjoy it."
The entire episode is just a long letter to the fans attempting to say the above. It seems the message didn't get across to those who are really bad at learning the very blatant friendship lessons in the show.
Remember when we focused on those lessons? Remember when we all knew that was what the show was about? Pepperidge Farms Remembers, and so do I.
Huh. It is trying to teach the lessons in an entertaining way, but the goal of the entertainment is to teach lessons. The moment someone expects them to make it entertaining to the detriment of the lessons is the moment they will be disappointed (and in some instances, angry).
So please, understand that this isn't an attack on the fans. It's not even an attack on critique or the fans that have critiques. This is an open letter to the fans about wanting to improve but ignoring those who are unreasonable. Both those who are missing the point, and to those who love the show for what it is, not what they want it to be.
I think I've said my peace on it by this point.
Love and Tolerance,
PiercingSight
EDIT: It's funny. It seems the episode even correctly predicted the reaction to the episode, which would be absolutely hilarious if it wasn't so sad.
i loved the episode, honestly. It was hilarious, and only got more hilarious after i realized what was going on
I learned the lessons. Why not set aside time in the episode to address fans like me? Why not differentiate between fans who miss the point and fans who got the point (and are not children)?
I'm sorry, but if that was the point, they messed it up. Badly.
Also, we want the show to improve. If they don't do this for us, then they don't want it to improve, and they never want it to get better, or even stay good. That is self-destructive and wrong. We may not be their target audience, but our criticism is still valid. We want it to be better. If they don't, then they should quit.
Again, not a good way to get the point across.
4635802
Again, the point is missed.
They aren't doing it to please the fans. They're doing it to teach friendship lessons. The lesson of the episode is understanding that people aren't perfect, that they can't please everyone, including you, and that they do try to be better despite those things.
If those weren't the lessons you learned, then you didn't get the point.
That's rather conceited. "If it doesn't please ME (a very tiny portion of the audience), then they must not be trying!"
They do want to get better, but they're not going to get better for you, or any specific part of the fandom. They're trying to improve making the show about what it's supposed to be about: Friendship Lessons. Not "cool intriguing plots n such".
Valid ≠ Good or even Correct. Valid criticism only means that they hear you and take it into consideration, but they're not about to drop what they're actually working towards to fulfill all of your desires. To expect them to do so is selfish and childish.
You are the target audience of this specific episode, and it seems you missed the point completely (when the entire episode is about missing the point and then telling you the point straight up, heck they even had a musical number about it).
They hit the nail on the head with this episode, it seems.
4635825
Pleasing fans comes with the territory. If you create something that you want people to enjoy, you have to make sure they keep enjoying it. That means doing it to please the fans. If you don't, they lose interest, and your product fails. This just excuses them from doing it.
I have learned the friendship lessons, and I like them. But is it too much to ask for a little more than that?
That's not what I said. Again, if they don't improve based on fans' reactions, then they will lose their fanbase and the product suffers. They can't give us something then say it's not meant to be given to us. It's contradictory, and a bit pretentious.
Again, if they do get better, it will be for us. Otherwise, the show loses quality, and viewership, and it loses support. They can't say they are improving the show and not doing it for us. The show exists as entertainment for others. They have to improve for those "others" or the "others" will not watch it anymore.
Why is it selfish and childish to want the show to be the best it can possibly be? Why is it selfish to want the show to be good, and to continue to be good? It means they still get work, and it means we still have something to enjoy. I think it's more selfish for them to treat us like our opinions don't matter and paint us all with the same "you're a horrible fan" brush.
As I said, if that was the point, they badly mishandled it, and I don't think they deserve to comment on us if they either don't know who we really are or how we really feel, or don't care. This means they don't respect us enough to consider our feelings, and this comes across as hurtful in a way they didn't consider. If they want to represent our bad side, they need to represent our good side to be fair to us. Otherwise, the whole thing is a self-serving, smug display of creator entitlement and fan backlash that we don't deserve.
Well, if they want us to learn a lesson about not expecting more from them, maybe they should learn a lesson on how to tell us so in a proper, fair and mature way instead of wasting time to humiliate the fans that made this show popular to begin with.
It was mishandled. Plain and simple.
4635849
You do realize that MOST of the fanbase doesn't have any strong opinions like those in the episode. The fans that do are few and far between, but they are the most vocal. If they lose those fans, it'll clean the herd, so to speak.
They give it to the regular fans. Not the pretentious complainers that call themselves fans.
No it won't. It'll be for the people who actually enjoy the show for what it is.
It's selfish and childish to think that your views of the show are the only correct measure of how good the show is.
Maybe you're not understanding what I'm saying.
This 'us' you keep using only actually includes a small portion of the fandom that gets butthurt over stupid crap like this. Your reaction fits exactly what the episode predicted, and therefore, you are in that part of the fandom that they don't care about. They care about the other 99% of the fandom that watches it to enjoy it and the friendship lessons, not to critique their writing.
They nailed it, and you're proving their point. Plain and simple.
4635868
So you think the fandom is better off without the vocal fans? You think you can judge who belongs in the fandom and who doesn't?
And you have the right to say who's a real fan and who isn't?
And you have the right to say who the improvements will be for?
And yet we're going by your standards of who's a real fan and who's not. Which is worse: declaring what's right for the show, or declaring who should or shouldn't be in the fandom?
Really?
So, after three years of giving love, admiration, support and devotion to a show that saved me from suicide on several occasions, after wanting it to improve so it continues to save me and others from that darkness, after so much emotional investment, they are saying they don't care about me?
Then why am I even here? The "real" fans don't care, the writers don't care, and up until I discovered the show, I didn't care. So why am I still here? Why am I letting both creators and fans abuse me for the way I feel? Why do I consider myself a fan if I'm really not?
4635885
I didn't say vocal fans. I'm talking about the fans that are negatively vocal about things that the writers can't change. The fans that feel they are entitled to the show being targeted only at them. Sadly, most of them have no idea that they fall into this category.
I don't, but the writers do.
They care about everyone in the fandom. What they don't care about is the unreasonable expectations of the show and what the writers do with it.
This isn't about who is a fan and who isn't. It's about who enjoys the show for what it's supposed to be, and who misses the point and then gets mad when they do, as if it's somehow the writers' fault that they can't please everyone.
Every writer has critics. Every one of them, even from the fanbase. But in my experience, it's better that writer's of anything continue making what they love for the reasons they started it to begin with. That's what the writers of the show are saying they're doing with this episode.
They're ignoring the people who are clearly being unreasonable about the show and what happens in it, as they should.
So what determines if you are in the fandom or not is yourself. Do you enjoy the show for the friendship lessons? Or do you think the show should cater specifically to you? If it's the first, then welcome! If the latter, then what makes you think that your definition of good is the standard the show should be measured by?
That's what it is.
I love the show, and it has helped me as well. But it would be wrong of me to try to dictate the direction of the show and then get mad when the writers don't do what I wanted.
4635914
I loved the show for what it was, too. And I don't think my expectations were unreasonable. I just want the show to be the best it can be. Not the best ever. Just doing its best, you know? I want it to keep being good and keep helping being out of the lowest points in their lives, like it helped me. I just want it to stick around for a very long time.
And for them to give the impression that they think that's the same thing as entitled whining fanboys, that hurts. I wish they'd pointed out that fans who want more from the show just want the show to continue to do well so people can continue to enjoy it. They show us our own bad side, but it's not fair to condemn us all like that. We have our good moments, and I wish it had shown that instead of just making it seem like we're all alike.
They don't even improve in the episode, and that tells me that they think we're not capable of improving and being better fans, and better people. So, if they want us to enjoy the show for the friendship lessons, then imply they don't think we can learn from them, then why do this to begin with? They don't seem to understand who we really are, and why we act the way we do. Yes, we do get a little out of hand, but it's because we love the show and we want to keep loving it. Is that so wrong?
I'm sorry, but they really should have treated us with a little more respect. It's not fair to us to be treated like we're all terrible fans all the time. We're good people. We just get carried away. But we love it and want it to be good. That's not bad, and that's not unreasonable. That's being a fan.
4635929
I don't think they are condemning the entire fandom. In fact I think that most of the fandom isn't represented in the episode at all. If you aren't as unreasonable as the characters in the show, expecting Fluttershy to change after on lesson, still being annoyed that they gave Twilight wings, etc, then they aren't targeting you.
They are respecting the fans. They're respecting the opinions and views that are kind, constructive, and understand what the show is about.
It is trying to teach friendship lessons in an entertaining way, but the goal of the entertainment is to teach lessons. The moment someone expects them to make it entertaining to the detriment of the lessons is the moment they will be disappointed (and in some instances, angry). And those are the people that they are addressing.
They are not saying the fandom is bad. They're saying the crazy angry part of the fandom is unreasonable and not worth listening to.
If you're not in that group, that's not who they're addressing.
On top of that, they aren't saying they aren't going to keep trying to improve, in fact quite the opposite. They are saying they want to get better, but they're not going to pander to people who think that the show belongs to them.
So it's not an all out assault on the fans. It's not saying they're ignoring the criticism and the fans. It's saying that they are done listening to the unreasonably angry expectations of the crazier part of the fandom.
That's all.
4635941
I wish they had specified. If they want to represent only the worst of the fans, they should have made it clearer that not all of us are like this. With the adult fans in the episode, there's only one setting: unreasonable jerk fanboy. They imply that that's the only kind of adult fan there is, and they don't address the fans who don't act that way. I get what they wanted to do, but the way they did it was mishandled and poorly thought-out. Maybe they're not attacking all of us, but I wish they'd made that clearer. Otherwise, they wouldn't have hurt fans like me as badly. It makes me think that, after all the respect and love I gave them, that I'm still a bad fan.
4635950
You are not a bad fan. And yes, they weren't very clear about the group they were pointing to, something they could have done better.
I personally quickly understood that I was not the target of any of the poking, despite my being a huge fan of the show with my own critiques about it. And it seems a lot of fans felt they were included in the episode when they weren't.
But for the people they were talking to, for the point they were trying to get across to them, they hit the nail on the head in a hilarious way.
Try watching the episode with the understanding that you're not the part of the fandom they're talking to and then maybe your view on the episode will change.
4635959
In that case, maybe. But still, even if they were only addressing a certain group, it's not really fair to say its not for them when the show is really for everyone. And the ponies in the episode never learned the lesson, which implies they don't think those kind of fans are capable of learning. So if they want them to remember what the show is all about, why imply that the lessons can't possibly apply to them. It creates mixed messages and doesn't make it clear whether they were being cruel or benign. If I'm not a part of this, then I might give it a chance, but I just don't know.