Unpopular opinion time

I think given all that we can conclude the Wonderbolts are kinda jerks overall

@DoctorWTF  
The Wonderbolts apparently don’t believe in the presumption of innocence.

@EquusStorm  
I’m more annoyed they never did anything noteworthy with them after that it was just “naw they’re shit, that’s it. We can’t be bothered, thank you for your time.”
 
It was really clear that come Newbie Dash they couldn’t have been assed to do anything with them

@Kiryu-Chan
 
Despite enjoying the students and whatnot, they really coulda used those last two seasons to flesh out the characters they already had instead of piling on new ones. Maybe the revolving door of writers takes blame for that too I dunno.

@EquusStorm  
It was less introducing more characters and more being selective on characters they wanted to focus on. Like they introduced the pillars but the only ones they gave a shit about were Starswirl(who’d had already gotten the lion’s share of attention) and Rockhoof(leaks showed he was the only one they wanted to bring back again even though he already got an episode) while abandoning the rest. Aside a few isolated cases(Trixie, Maud) most characters that got more attention were ones introduced post S5. Then there was the fact that they kept bringing back the Flim Flam Bros and Garble while Gilda and Lightning Dust kept getting shafted
 
@icey wicey 1517  
No lies detected

@EquusStorm  
Soarin is usually OK.
 
 
@Kiryu-Chan  
I think writers just picked the characters they thought were interesting/fit the plots they wanted to do. There’s a reason I call it “toybox style”…

@EquusStorm  

 
It’s worse because the show tries to justify it all the time

Thinking back, Tirek might have been the only good villain the show had. Maybe Discord, too, but I’m gonna sideline that for a second.
 
Let’s just look at the “villains” for a second.  
Nightmare Moon  
Discord  
Chrysalis  
Sombra  
Tirek  
Starlight Glimmer  
Pony of Shadows / Stygian  
Cozy Glow  
Trixie  
Flim and Flam  
Iron Will  
Gilda  
Lightning Dust  
Suri Polomare  
Cheese Sandwich
 
 
Who got a backstory?  
Nightmare Moon, Tirek and Starlight. Stygian got one but he’s seperate from the Pony of Shadows so…
 
Who had clear motions, though?  
Chrysalis wanted food then revenge. Starlight’s original motivation was unclear for a whole season, then it was revenge. Stygian wanted revenge but what about the Pony of Shadows? Discord was chaos for it’s own sake which works, I guess. Iron Will, Flim and Flam are just after money. Nothing really that compelling, honestly.
 
And those kinds of problems extend to almost the whole cast. It’s no wonder ^heh the Wonderbolts got shafted the way they did. They got written into a box. A very jerky box.

@Brass Beau
 
I like the third option.

@Kiryu-Chan
 

 

@Brass Beau  
Really, the chracters are more about how they feed the imagination than being a complete package onscreen. They’re complete enough to play their roles, at least.

@Latecomer  
I can definitely see what you mean by “toy box style” but boy does it feel like unimaginative fifth graders were behind the wheel of some episodes. On the one hoof, if G5 is more cohesive there’s the chance writers can’t bail out of a bad idea. On the other hoof, if G5 is as messy as G4 could be then the series could suffer massive decay very quickly. Talk about a catch-22.

@Brass Beau  
I’ll just note that the show’s lack of central planning and minimal chracter arcs probably helped it go a lot longer than it could ever have been originally expected to. YMMV if that was good or bad, of course.

That’s probably a pretty fair assessment, I was afraid the Twilicorn thing was gonna write them into a corner and cause issues. Not having super defined and limiting arcs no doubt proved helpful.

@EquusStorm  
I’d say Twilight had two, maybe three arcs. Rainbow’s ended (or should have) when she finally joined the Wonderbolts. Same for Rarity with the Canterlot Boutique, or something. Starlight had a decent one. And with the extended families and other characters we probably could have gotten some decent arcs. The loose framework they operated in wasn’t bad but the characters kinda meandered about a bit too much I feel.

@Brass Beau
 
Well the good thing with those individual character arcs is there’s still a framework for potential future episodes within those completed goals should they be needed, as opposed to the entire show having one big theme where once that was over there was nowhere to go… though one might say they just threw in more characters once one arc was done instead of fully flesh out the characters we already had

@EquusStorm  
Well, by Season 3 they had started setting up things a bit, but only in relatively short-term ways and without affecting most episodes.
 
 
@Brass Beau  
The thing about Rarity and Rainbow’s “arcs” is that they’re not quite arcs in the same sense as the keys or the School were arcs. They’re goals, created for the characters back when the show was gonna run three seasons tops. But as the show went on longer, they were allowed to progress towards those goals, and eventually to reach them. Same with the CMC, really. But it’s building one piece at a time, not looking forwards.
 
As for the “meandering” feeling… well, life’s a lot like that sometimes.

@EquusStorm  
One thing I do approve of with Rainbow/Rarity, whatever one thinks of the individual episodes, is that them achaiving their big goal was presented as the “start” of an episode that then showed the problems of such a change, rather than as a triumphant climax. The CMC were a bit different, but then they did a whole episode about “what next” so that worked to.

@Latecomer
 
Yeah same, with RD we had whatever problems came with being a part of the Wonderbolts and with Rarity we had the issues faced with expanding her business and dealing with being isolated from family upon becoming a famous fashionista. I like that since it shows just because you reached your goal there’s still life ahead and problems to work through. If the show had just said “ok Rarity opened a store in Canterlot dream done we’ll never see her again” that’d have been lame.
 
I was really afraid they had worked themselves into a corner with the CMC getting their marks since literally all the CMC had going for them is searching for that goal, but it worked out reasonably well helping others find their way even if it was never utilized all that much or well imo. I do think that never really showing Diamond Tiara again for the last four seasons after redeeming her, ignoring whatever struggles laid ahead learning to be not-a-dick was a bit of wasted potential though.

@EquusStorm  
That’s probably why I like Twilight’s evolution as a character. She went from a borderline misanthrope to the princess of caring about other people’s problems to a mentor and it all felt completely natural. And smug teacher Twilight always puts a smile on my face. We didn’t really get that with the others.  
Rainbow could have easily been that for Scootaloo and there were opportunities for Rarity to help others rise up. Coco and Sassy were begging to have mini-arcs. The Apple and Pie families would have been fun to explore more (thank goodness Maud caught some writers eyes). Despite being my favorite, though, I can’t think of much we could have gotten with Fluttershy outside of her relationships with Discord, Zephyr and Tree Hugger.

@EquusStorm  
Yeah, no-one really knows what happened there - some executive mandate or something. In the toybox analogy, like you leaving one of the toys at your aunt’s or something… she does at least have some appearances in the comics and books.
 
Regarding the chracter’s. I’m generally pro-growth, but don’t really require a planned “arc” for the most part (Starlight was one case who could have used it, though).

@Brass Beau  
Natural for some - others who were big fans of her felt her character had disappeared. I recall a lot of criticism around Season 4.
 
And there’s always going to be more stories that could have been done. But I think as you move away from the leads to more and more supporting players, it’s less and less “they really should have” and more and more “I really wish they’d”.

I closely identified with Twilight in S1, also being a book-hoarding slightly misanthropic hermit, so I guess I could see why the changes in her personality to literally a princess of friendship could at least make some people feel less connected lmao
 
Then again with the theme of the show being Friendship is Magic, it’s an evolution that naturally had to happen; I do miss the awkward dorky moments from earlier seasons though I still like the end result of the evolution. The epilogue episode notwithstanding.

@EquusStorm  
Some kind of evolution had to happen, but how much and in what direction is debateable. (Heck, it could be argued she didn’t follow through on the friendship angle enough - did she really have any friends outside the Mane cast and her Canterlot ones?)