Why season 8 is kinda slipping

Spoiler warning.

The past slew of MLP episodes have been really... well... mediocre. I feel like they're trying to fall back into their childish days of when they were just getting started, in order to recreate that charm season 1 had. The problem is...

There has been loads of development. To try and revert back to that time, try and initiate that charm, is really to throw everything that's been established under the bus.
And that's what has been happening.

I don't understand why MLP has decided that hiring a bunch of new writers and assigning them to a row of episodes is a good idea.
No, seriously - what the heck are they thinking?
Yeah it's good to open up to a fresh voice, but... let's put it this way.

Think of MLP like a baseball team. A bunch of veterans retire and so they hire new, talented recruits. However they have very little experience and need some time to observe, adjust - maybe share a game with one of the veterans.
Yet, the Captain decides it's a great idea to throw them into the field in the 8th inning, near the end of the game. This game is crucial to their success, and the coach may be hoping that given the recruits' youth and unique point of view, they'll be able to bring back a sense of the glory days. Instead no one's hitting a home run. No one has even got to first base. They keep getting foul balls.
Everyone is wondering what's happened to their successful team, the one they've followed for years, why they haven't seen the progress that's been made over time.
The coach throws in a veteran but it's a little late now. The first impression is set and... it's pretty certain the game isn't gonna go so great.

Do you see the point I want to make here?
MLP had a really good thing going. Lots of maturity - people wondering, even, if it could any longer be considered a kids show.
And yet, maybe, there was too much going on. We have so much developed we could go in any which direction to sculp it, detail it, perfect it - but it's a lot of effort, a lot of work... and a lot of material.
So they decide to start from a blank slate. Many of the episodes I've seen so far have seemed to entirely disregard everything we've ever learned.
I kid you not - in recent episodes, I wondered to myself, is this really the same character?
For a bit it was seeming like Twilight was suffering the worst (and she has, I'll get into it), but then... the most recent episode happened. Oh, dear.

Let's get into what I feel like's been wrong. First of all, the season 8 premier began... with a school. Bro, lissen, I don't care for school. I'm scarred for life because school has stolen most of it. If we are going for the more mature demographic like it had seemed in previous seasons, we have turned them all away.
The series begins clearly directed towards children. The premise is an... okay idea. I mean, as far as the justification for having the school goes. That was well done, put my guard down. However.
The episode couldn't develop anything going on in the school because that wasn't the focus - it was fighting the curriculum, the corrupt school system.
So we only got a glimpse of what daily life in school looks like with one song, which almost left the impression that school had only been open for one day. The song is supposed to span over several days, but it fails to get this across. (The song itself was mediocre too. There was a brief part in the song where Twilight was singing and she just stops mid-verse, only to continue a little bit later. It sounded really off and unprofessional.)
Twilight's character was fair in this one, with a little bit of her spunk, her freakout-ish-ness, and her love for learning like the adorkable purple nerd she is.
No one else quite seemed in-sinque though. I especially disliked the line where, of course, Rainbow Dash makes a rude comment in passing without realizing it's effect like her old self would, and she says (which is really, REALLY getting old), "no offense."
Then Applejack responds,
"Er, pretty sure she's gonna take offense to that."
....Have we not seen this exact interaction a million times already? By now Applejack's response just feels completely out of place, acting like this is a new phrase no one has used before and so it's natural to repeat what has been emphasized to exhaustion...
Dear Celestia.
Oh, and, some of you aren't going to like me for this, but here's the worst part of the premier.
A second main six.
... really?
I just - why? Why do we need 6 MORE CHARACTERS?
The most painful part is that it's almost certain they're not going to get development. There's a lot of them, they're all new, and they don't get much screen time. Excuse me while I fall down a flight of stairs.
The only other problem I have with them is that, because of the former issue, they all have staple personalities... which would be fine if some characters didn't have THE SAME STAPLE.
Gallus and Smolder are essentially empty husk versions of a superficial Rainbow Dash nutshell. Absolutely boring and a little irritating in my opinion. We've seen their personalities done before. So... many... times.
Not to mention that Smolder stole Scootaloo's color palette. Do you think that when she paints herself in the mornings she practices her Flynn Rider face in the mirror?
On to the rest of the characters...
Yona is the generic, grumpy-cute-clumsy one that's supposed to make you 'aww'.
Ocellus is a face-value Fluttershy who has developed bravery by the end of the first half of the premier... now she's just kinda the quiet perfect princess who can change into scary things and oh what the heck let's just rename her Preciouspearl Sparklehair. Also she's half bald.
Silverstream is the Pinkie Pie of void personality. Also she highly offends me because growing up I was a hardcore Warrior Cats fan and Silverstream was a perfect cat who DIED and it was TRAGIC and Erin Hunter should have made copyright claims by now.

Anyway... huh. That's only five characters. Weren't there six? I was sure.... what?
OH RIGHT, Sandbar. I forgot he existed. Probably because he has NO DISCERNABLE PERSONALITY.
Remember when I said all the New-6 had staples? I lied. Sandbar is a plain piece of paper.

Look, the Premier in my opinion wasn't great, but it was passable, and the Maud Couple was great - it gave me a sense of hope. A false sense of hope. I shouldn't have hoped.

'Fake it till you make it' had a cute premise, and a little bit of a callback later on, and the idea was fun... but there wasn't really a lesson. And whatever lesson it was supposed to be resolved uncomfortably quick.
Like all her characters got fired and suddenly she's like, "oh, my, guys, sorry about that. Guess I got carried away", and everyone's like, "oh it's grand-diddly, flutter butter. Just BE YOURSELF" or whatever the darned message was.
She didn't learn her lesson! At the end, she's yelling at somepony aggressively, but she says it's okay to keep her confidence or whatever... did we not establish in Putting Your Hoof Down that literally the opposite is how she should be acting?
The former development was kind of for nothing.
Next, Grannies Gone Wild. Again, fun, fresh idea. Bad execution. The whole conflict kind of dragged on, seemed unlikely. Then the Golden Girls ask RD to join their ranks and she... accepts? Heartwearmed?
Why?
Afterwards is probably my least favorite episode this season, Surf amd Turf. Did no one else feel like none of the characters were acting like themselves in this? And like I said before, Twilight shone worst.
Apparently the CMC can be called by the Cutie Map, completely new for everyone, and purple nerd is utterly calm, like this is supposed to happen and she knew it would. She even appears amused at the CMC's reaction. What in the world? We don't even get an explanation into why other ponies are being called!
Then throughout she kind of just disappears to do different activities that just don't seem to fit her at all. Her dialogue is passive and unnatural, and she's almost a Season 1 Celestia. Seeing this sort of parallel in personality would be kinda cool if it weren't completely contradictory.
The CMC themselves reverted to immaturity and seemed to forget all they had learned. Only the story was good, being unique in premise. Again it was just kind of executed oddly.
Then we get to Horse Play, which for me was the best episode this season. A real Celestia episode with true development! I'd only wished that RD wasn't her incompetent-for-the-plot movie self, and that Twi and Celestia had been treated more like mother/daughter or mentor/student as opposed to just... "friends"? Am I the only one who gets uncomfortable when relationships aren't clearly defined?
Second-to-last we had the Parent Map, which actually felt like a natural episode, though Twilight still seemed off and - what? Sunburst called to the map? No explanation? And Twi's totally fine with it? .....well, everything else was good, at least. Probably most natural MLP episode this season. Kind of felt repeated, since a similar thing had been done with RD and her parents, but... I'll take it.
Finally, we arrive at the most recent episode, which has a ... really strange title.
"Non-Compete Clause".
...okay? I don't think most of the audience will know what that is, but you do you I guess.
This was... such a bad episode. AJ and RD were very likely being used in an attempt to revive that season 1 vibe that most love, but... they've been through far too much. This feels like a severe step down.
Also, Twilight in this episode.... really?!
I can't give any description of how out-of-character she was that will do her justice. You... you just gotta see it for yourself.

Season 8 has some problems. And that's not great because the show's aging, and no one wants it to fall like SpongeBob or Fairly Odd Parents.
Here's to a hopefully great rest of the season - a real turn around.

Thanks for reading.