Pony Venting Thread

Latecomer

@EquusStorm  
Well, I kept watching cause I still enjoyed it sometimes - sometimes more than sometimes. Even Season 9 has some great episodes… it just has less of them, as well as various continuity issues. Heck, I’ll say my enjoyment of something and willingness to accept it as headcanon is only partially related in the first place.
 
It seems like your preferences between earlier and later are a bit less clear-cut then “later = better”.
 
And I totally get that - the addition of new pieces to play with is another reason I kept on watching all the way through. I like the Students and love Cozy Glow, even if they weren’t in the best seasons.
EquusStorm
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@Latecomer
 
Again much of my sour opinion of earlier seasons is due to burnout, not their objective quality, along with assuming most of the magic I remember from 2011/2012 was associated more with the people I hung out with and the novelty. Revisiting them now just feels bittersweet like a moment that can’t be recaptured.
 
It mainly reflects my preferences on which episodes I’ll sit down and rewatch on the occasion I revisit an episode; the later seasons I’ve only seen episodes a couple times at most while S1 I watched literally a half dozen times in rapid succession to the point of burnout waiting for S2 lol. More like later = less burned out and more fresh, but certainly won’t disagree their quality is insanely uneven.
 
Later seasons have far more episodes I rank highly in enjoyability, but far more episodes that are absolutely terrible, far worse than the worst S1-2 had to offer. That drags down the overall enjoyment of the season considerably but not enough for me to drag the whole season super low.
 
Cozy Glow was pretty great. Makes me want to watch Cats Don’t Dance again as she reminds me a lot of Darla Dimple
Latecomer

@EquusStorm  
Well, that sounds rather personal (and makes me think twice about revisiting them, perhaps). I just fove full on into fan stuff back them instead of rewatching the show.
 
It seems we actually view the quality of the episodes in the seasons similarly, but translate that a bit differently? One day I will have to finish rating all the episodes and see how that works out (I only did the first three seasons before.)
EquusStorm
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@Latecomer
 
I think it’s worth revisiting to be able to tell if a lot of the remembered magic is due to objective quality or the feeling around the fandom at the time, but for me it’s the latter.
 
I will say that looking at season episode lists (I honestly forget what ep is in what season post S3, as I was way more unhealthily obsessed prior to that) has made me realize just how many bad episodes were in later seasons, but still, in retrospect even taking out the burnout factor there’s nothing I’d rank super high nor something I’d rank super low.
 
If I’m in the mood to watch an episode I’d want to watch one I rank pretty highly, so I more of less rank seasons by which seasons have more eps that I rank highly as opposed to the percentage of good episodes. I have more faves in S7 than any other season and none of my top faves are in S1 or 6 so those probably are near the bottom.
 
Goes to show ranking is really subjective I guess, everyone’s mileage may vary
Latecomer

@EquusStorm  
I think for me it’s both, but I suppose I can’t tell unless I try.
 
And yeah, the show’s standalone nature means “good/bad episodes” and “good/bad seasons” aren’t so tightly coupled. I formed my opinions on each season after watching it, I guess.
EquusStorm
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@Latecomer
 
It’s why I don’t like ranking seasons against each other since the individual episodes mean more than the overall season they’re in especially later on; like, I’ll have a favorite and least favorite season if pressed, but I much prefer favorite individual episodes. I get that seasons have some overarching theme (The keys in S4, Starlight in S5, etc) but unless the favorite episode is directly applicable to the seasonal theme it doesn’t really matter that much what season the episode is in
EquusStorm
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@Latecomer
 
I like the evolution of the art; from cloned swarms of identical bg characters in S1 before they knew the show was gonna take off, to having some really unique and detailed characters eventually, for one. Also I remember the huge excitement over the flowing animation from the S3 preview with Twilight’s mane billowing in the breeze, an animation fluidity and quality that’d rapidly become commonplace. I chalk it up more to the show’s artists getting more experience the longer they animated more than anything.
 
Still, I do miss the writers that were there from the start. We got Songco/Lewis and Berrow eventually so it’s not all bad but that may be why we started getting consistently bad episodes later on when the writing team was a revolving door.
Latecomer

@EquusStorm  
Oh, the art is definitely the one place the show only went up - although I’d say from good to great there.
 
Writing was more of a shuffle. And of course, the story editors were also a big influance.
 
(Berrow never really did it for me really.)
EquusStorm
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@Latecomer
 
Despite not writing a lot of extremely memorable eps she still stands out amidst the late season writers to me since she’d been doing a lot of the storybooks and stuff for so long she at least had a grasp of the source material as opposed to the writers that just jumped in for two eps and then out without knowing much about the show they were writing for lol
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I think Season One has been surpassed in every way except in terms of vision and attention to detail. Like, I’m still finding new details to appreciate.
 
@EquusStorm  
I think One, Eight and Nine are the only seasons where it makes sense to consider the seasons as a whole.
 
@Latecomer  
It’s not just fanon, though. You can go back and look at the details surrounding Celestia and a couple of patterns emerge.
Latecomer

@DerpyFast  
And consistent quality IMO. But then, there are those that hate some of it’s episodes…
 
 
 
@DerpyFast  
Finding patterns from inadvertently scattered hints is fanon. Because I guarantee you it was not any sort of planned setup on the writers’ part.
Helix988

Controversial opinion: Bunny Raven… or …How to Make A Titananimal Disappear>Any Discord episode.
 
@Latecomer  
@DerpyFast
Finding patterns from inadvertently scattered hints is fanon. Because I guarantee you it was not any sort of planned setup on the writers’ part.
 
Agreed.
DaddyMakesMeEUHH

(ヽ^ゝ^)ちわー!
In regards to season one, I’m not going to say it was the best season, however it did have a nice,homey,“down to earth” vibe to it. It didn’t go above and beyond, like the other seasons, which made it seem calmer and something you didn’t have to over analyze. Episodes like “Over the Barrel” had moments to me that actually had the main six seem like genuine friends.  
So basically want I’m saying is if you’re doing chores, season one would be good to play in the background.
EquusStorm
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I mean, Faust’s original idea was literally to have Twilight replace Celestia, so it’s a thing that came full circle as originally intended. I can’t say whether or not the show staff spent all nine seasons making that explicitly obvious but I’m fairly sure it was in the works all along.
 
 
@DaddyMakesMeEUHH
 
Ironically I was thinking exactly that; it’s a good season for background noise doing household stuff or passing the time. Definitely nothing I’d sit down and watch closely but good fairly nostalgic background noise.
Latecomer

@DaddyMakesMeEUHH  
Oh, we over-analyzed it. I should show you the two-page essay someone did on poison joke, or the attempts at breaking down the Equestrian writing systems…
 
But you are right about the tone, and perhaps that’s one reason for my love of it. But akso one to watch closely - and I think I’ve decided, I really am going to soon!
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Passionate opinionator
@Latecomer  
Very much, and the fact that he’s had it in development for so long. He had a general concept of how his story would work but couldn’t figure out how he wanted to write the dialogue and settings properly. I could be wrong about the last part about why it takes him so long to update.  
Same here with my headcanons and I think a lot of other people played the same way too. Oh dear, that could be. I’ll have to ask one of my friends if this is true for them.
EquusStorm
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I gotta say I never really developed much of a headcanon aside from minor speculation, I just went along exactly with what the show said and only used fanon to piece together things the show didn’t cover. Then if the show DID cover something I mentally replaced the fanon with the new canon. But yeah I can see how massive changes in the show would upset those who chose not to follow the show canon. Rewatching a lot of earlier season episodes in the last couple days, it’s clear that there was a cozier feel before the world really opened up and I can’t blame anyone for sticking with that I guess.
Background Pony #945D
I kinda wonder what happened first: Did Cathy Weseluck see how small Spike’s role was on Pony Life and decide to decline? Or did she decline and that led to Spike having a much smaller role on the show compared to FiM?
Helix988

@Background Pony #945D  
They put Spike in some of the first promotional materials for the show, so I kinda assume they intended feature him more?
 
full
 
Looking back over the IDW comics, I wish the show went with the stoic, everyman personality that the comics gave Big Mac as opposed to the insecure, idiot personality the show went with. Especially since every prominent male character (Spike, Discord, Shining Armor, Sunburst, etc.) on the show already has that characterization.
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