@Tavi959  
Oh, I get it. I should’ve taken what you said more literally.

@Background Pony #AFCC
 
@marik_azemus34  
The only reason I said that is because Lauren’s opinion has the ability to undermine what has been done in her absence. Her opinion carries weight in a way that nobody else’s does.
 
And in leaving, she left a position that provided her with the ability to steer the narrative. She has no right or reason to say anything about the show because she made forfeit her own ability to actually do something about it.
 
And she does stay away from the show to prevent herself from commenting on it and thus exercising an opinion that carries more weight. Enough people use Word of Faust as an excuse that if she did voice an opinion it could literally derail the whole show.

The show is more consistent with its rules than it used to be, sudden inability to teleport aside. Starlight and Twilight discuss actual magical theory, we have a bunch of lore to draw from that wasn’t there before, and Starlight explained that magic is tied to emotions, which explains a LOT of what’s happened in the past.

@Background Pony #AFCC  

 
If “whatever you feel like” counts as a rule set, sure, Lauren had a rule set.  
Even the most basic aspect of the show’s magic, the mere act of casting a spell, might as well be decided by coin flip since season 1. It changes all the time from needing to be aimed, to just needing to think about the target in your mind, and absolutely no one cares or acknowledges it, or ever explains why there would ever use the former method.
 
The only “specific rule set” that decides if a given creature can talk is necessity, and this was shown as early as episode 2. The only reason that manticore can’t talk is because the plot required for Fluttershy to use her ability, not because of a rule set. The only reason that sea serpent could is because the plot required Rarity to talk without Fluttershy stealing her thunder, not because of a rule set.  
Take a chicken and a snake, put it together and get a cockatrice that can’t talk.  
But mix a snake and dragon, and get a sea serpent that can talk.  
But mix a dragon, a scorpion, and a lion, and get a manticore that can’t talk.  
But mix a lion, and a eagle, and get a griffon that can talk.  
In the cockatrice and griffon case, both are combinations of creatures that can’t talk individually, but only in the griffon’s case does it miraculously gain the ability.  
In the manticore and sea serpent case, both are combinations of creatures that can and can’t talk, but only in the sea serpent’s case can it talk.
 
Apparently this is fantasy world completely separate from our human world. And yet, in literally the first episode of the whole series, Lauren is more that happy to punch a whole right through that by making a direct reference to the existence of a real person from our world, something which if new writer did today, they’d be torn a new asshole for.

77 comments, topkek

@Tavi959  
The only people who’ve lost a right to an opinion regarding this show are Jerry Peet, ToonKritic and this one guy named Sol who pops up sometimes on Equestria Daily. Everyone else has a right to speak their mind.

@Tavi959  

Well, that’s a bit too far. Lauren has every right to voice her opinion as much as I do or you, or anyone. It’s just since she left her opinion don’t have any more weight then mine or your’s or anyone’s.

The original pitch bible is still referenced for consistency, but at the end of the day any ideas Lauren had became irrelevant when she left. And a lot of people forget that she did leave voluntarily.
 
Lauren lost any right to voice an opinion when she left, and she left so long ago now that her influence only lies in the outline. Lauren herself has chosen to stay away from the show entirely for this reason. She doesn’t know what they’ve done or what they’ve been doing because she doesn’t want to taint the narrative.

@Copper Knight  

 
How rude someone is or isn’t is subjective after all. I mean, is that how we should assume you mean your words? There is some objective standard of rudeness that both our comments fit upon? Or should I understand you’re speaking your opinion and this is just an effort on your part to satisfy your ego and declare your misdeeds the lesser?
 
“I’m sorry” has very little weight when paired with much more extensive efforts to defend the behavior apologized for. Should I assume you do or that you do not actually understand how apologies work?
 
As for your advice: considered and discarded. Being confrontational is not a fault or flaw. I may not convince you to change your mind on anything, but I do change peoples’ minds often enough. I also have my own mind changed rather often on topics.
 
Speaking of, you have just done so now. I understand I mistook your statements as opinions. That was incorrect of me. “Observations” is indeed a better term for it. The fact that not 100% of people react as you’ve observed is itself an interesting part of the trend, but not actually an indication of the thing being an opinion.
 
In the spirit of civil advice-sharing, I’d say assume other people do understand their statements are opinions when the thing they state are opinions. Respond with that assumption, instead of seeking to needle them pedantically. It doesn’t actually lead to a civil conversation if you feel the need to bring up such inane things if the person had zero intent for their words to be taken as objective fact. Learn that English and general, casual conversation norms mean that people do speak in declaritive/objective ways. Wait for those extreme cases where someone really, really is attempting to assert their opinion is the same for everyone, then object to that. The real issue is not “subjective/objective” but in their effort to read the minds of everyone and state the minds of those others as matching their own.

@Copper Knight  
I would agree that if Faust was still running the show, there would be a risk of running out of ideas, since she probably wouldn’t be down with big swooping changes, that happened over the years. And I do believe that those changes are what gave writers ideas to play with which kept the show feeling fresh.
 
But I miss some of the qualities of first seasons that now are more or less gone. Like ponies being restricted in a horse-like movement, except for Pinkie (cause she’s Pinkie), or that world felt like it was running on a specific rule set, instead of being all over the place, like right now. And now we get a lot of cities and towns that look more or less like modern human ones, except for some small details here and there. When it was just Ponyville, Canterlot, Everfree Forest and a couple of small western-like towns, it felt like it’s own separate world a lot more than it does now. Now it feels like whatever goes, like there are no limits to what kind of place could exist. Also Lauren would sometimes put scenes without much words (like in the begining of “Look before you sleep”), which doesn’t happen much since she left.
 
In a lot of respects later seasons feel completely different to the first ones, and for some it’s for the better, for some it’s for the worse. To each their own. I like them both for their unique qualities. And while I prefer first seasons, I realise that things would’ve ran into a wall very fast, since originally the show was only planed for 3 seasons, and there was never an intention to expend until Lauren has already left. So I enjoy my two first seasons that aren’t going anywhere, while also enjoying watching where Meghan’s train is getting us :3

@Cryosite  
First, I wasn’t rude. Unless you consider “false and misguided” as rude because fair enough. It can be read that way. I already said sorry. But, you are responding in a much, much ruder fashion.
 
I’ve seen you around and notice that you are in a lot ducky OP topics. I think you need to take a breath because you are very confrontational.
 
Anyway, I already admitted to missing your first line. However, even if it is obvious someone is stating an opinion because that is what people do, there is a difference between people who knowingly state their opinion, someone who claims their opinion but writes in an objective manner which is just using “imo” as a catch all, and those that are trying to assert their opinions _as_objective. This is most obvious in Starlight hate. Most of your phrasing is done in objective language to the point that me missing your first sentence made me think you were trying to assert your opinions as facts.
 
A paragraph alone won’t do that. Phrasing is important in writing. As shown with my own statement making me sound ruder than I actually intended or wanted. I’d rather be civil within a discussion as much as possible.
 
That being said - when I talked about the hype stuff, I wasn’t speaking in opinions but in observations I’ve had of the fanbase. The ones that get people the most riled up are those sort of episodes. Otherwise they call them “good” or “meh”. There are very few episodes that cause a great deal of hype without those ingredients.

@Copper Knight  
Rudeness in kind for rudeness.
 
“Milk Way is a delicious candy bar.” Phrased objectively, because it is an objective statement. Not that the candy bar is objectively delicious, but that the speaker objectively holds the opinion. This is how English works. Rather than assume the speaker is an idiot and saying “every living being thinks Milky Ways are delicious” the proper response is, “I’m glad you enjoy them. I do too/I don’t.”
 
The entire post was an expression of opinion. Take it as such, respond to it as such, and don’t be rude and imply I’m an idiot. Understand that I am explaining the internal consistency to my opinion. I am expressing it to be useful to others. I cite examples that others are perfectly free to agree or disagree on, but the overall message stands. Take the episodes you like and dislike or are indifferent to. It seems that the seasons get better over time. Some people don’t find their trend has a smooth upward trend, but a lot of people do. That’s an interesting thing to speak of, without any reference to anything objective.
 
The exact reasoning for why that trend differs from person to person. For you, it includes the reasons you cited. Cool reasons. I agree that those are things that happen. I don’t necessarily agree they’re the reason everyone likes certain episodes or seasons, but I’m not going to stoop to that level of dismissiveness to you or be petty. I understand that you mean they’re your reasons for liking the things you like, not an attempt to read the minds of literally all fans.
 
This “anti-subjective” trend that people often adopt is itself pretty awful. I think a lot fewer people mistake their opinions as fact than people assert happens. If someone is stating their opinion, then respond to it as an opinion. You don’t need to be a pedantic ass and assume they need to be educated on what an opinion is.

@Background Pony #AFCC  
Faust’s work makes a good guideline but a lot of her original ideas in the bible were not exactly the best. Such as everyone knowing what the CMC’s cutie marks would have really been…but they were too stupid to figure it out essentially which is why people were annoyed that they hadn’t earn them before season 5. The fact that instead of following her bible, they actually went in CMC’s marks actually being something different made it make more sense that they took so long to get. It was something not even the fanbase had considered.
 
I honestly believe things would have gotten more stale with Faust still at the helm because of her original ideas.
 
I personally think things are better as guidelines. Really only the original pony world building was good to keep around - Pegasi weather magic, etc.

@Cryosite  
First, what reason is there to be rude?
 
Second, just putting “in my opinion” doesn’t change the way you write your opinion more like writing as if you are speaking objectively. There isn’t much “I” in your writing to make it sound as if it is an opinion.
 
Third, I will however admit to missing your statement anyway, but doesn’t really change my statement. I’ll say it’s less directed at you now, but I do see it too much with people even in this comment section speaking in an objective way for subjective things. I will though say, I’m sorry.

For all Faust’s neighsayers, I want to touch on a couple of things.
 
Before I begin, I don’t think that Faust is the only important person on this show by no means, and I actually agree with the image on top, since I think that Lauren’s opinion on current developments has long became irrelavant, but what I would like to point out is that if this show wasn’t made by Lauren Faust we would have: different art style, different characters, possibly not even an ensemble cast of six of them as leads, different world, different setting, different tone, different pretty much everything. It would be a different show entirely. Possibly a good one, but since no one cared about previous two generations of MLP (or any other “Hasbro-based” shows that were running at the time), I wouldn’t put my money on it. Sure, Faust didn’t do all of it single handedly, but the world and main six characters are pretty much her original ideas (she didn’t even expected that Hasbro would just approve it all, but they did (since at the time they didn’t cared about MLP, it was more or less a dead franchise)). And while she didn’t do much writing on episodes herself, she created the characters that other writers worked with (and she was a head writer for two full seasons, which means she was able to pick what goes in and what doesn’t, and work on scripts until she’s happy with them). And most importantly she had a vision. And it sounds pretentious, but what I mean is that she knew what kind of show she wanted to make and instead of giving most of it to other writers to figure out, she had a very good idea of what she wanted from writers and other team members, and she tried her best to make that idea come to life. Also from interviews with writers who’ve worked during first two seasons, she is really good at working with talent and keeping the balance of asking them to do specific things, while allowing creative freedom. And while she isn’t working on the show anymore, she was the one who brought a team together and showed them how to do it. It doesn’t mean that qualities of other members of the staff don’t matter or that “it’s only by Faust’s will” that the show is still running. I think the team has done more then a great job to keep this show good throughout all these years. But I would say, she gave it a very good first push, the one that went from zero to whatever speeds the show was at during the season two.
 
Since she hasn’t been involved with the show for a long time, by now I actually agree that her original plans don’t matter. We’re too deep into all sorts of changes. But I think that a lot of important elements that were there from the begining are still here. At the end of a day it’s still a good show for little girls about cute ponies, friendships, character flaws and horse puns.
 
P.S: I think it’s also fair to say, that the greatness sometimes comes from compromises, since I don’t think that the show would be better if Hasbro allowed Lauren to do absolutely everything how she wanted (I prefer soft edges to sharp ones of the original desings, and I think show isn’t any worse for having more slice of life episodes instead of a long opening adventure arc). But just because some of her ideas weren’t to my tastes, doesn’t mean that those that ended up going into the show aren’t good.

@Copper Knight  

 
I even prefaced my comment with “In my opinion.”
 
Seriously, learn to read. Is it at all possible to accept that someone can actually understand when her opinions are opinions, share them, and not have someone insinuate that they don’t now the difference and/or are trying to assert their opinions as facts? Just how much tagging and prefacing and careful word choice will satisfy you?

@Cryosite  
For me, season 3 is the weakest because of its length. It doesn’t get that much time to shine, so while it’s still a good season, it’s not as good as the other two seasons of the classic era of the show.
 
As for season 8, I think it’s the best season yet, with more episodes being among the best of the season than any other, including Mean Six, Matter of Principals, Molt Down, Surf and/or Turf, The Parent Map, and On the Road to Friendship.  
So far, I’d say it has 11 great-amazing episodes (all of which I’d put in my top 20), 7 good - great episodes, and 2 okay episodes.  
The only episode so far that I’d put among the worst of the series is Friendship University, which I found to be dull and irritating (and it made Flim and Flam my second least favorite pony collectively).

@Cryosite  
Eh, I’d counter that Mean Six, A Matter of Principals, and Molt Down (especially Molt Down) are fantastic episodes to me.
 
There’s no accounting for taste and trying to state any objective facts about such is false and misguided.
 
Generally speaking, the biggest episodes tend to either answer questions we want to know for years - such as a Perfect Pear - or fulfill a part of the show we wanted - such as Crusaders of the Lost Mark. Season eight is generally not so “hyped” because at this point, most of these things have been answered. The only thing we’re really missing is a Rarity parents episode and answers of how Celestia got Spike’s egg.
 
Rainbow Dash is a Wonderbolt. Twilight has moved to the teaching role she has steadily been walking towards for years. Rarity has both a Canterlot store and a Manehatten. The CMC have their cutie marks. We know most of their parents and their personalities. We have more world building and know most creatures now (season 8 really just brought them together). Starlight’s pretty much moved past her villain past and guilt. Trixie is more of a reoccurring role along with Discord. Fluttershy is more quiet than scared, and usually has a spine now. Spike has guy friends. Starswirl has been fully revealed.
 
There isn’t much more that people will get super hyped for now because most of it has been answered.

@hollowblade  
MMC. The episode title is Magical Mystery Cure.
 
I think a discussion on how good/bad MMC was isn’t appropriate for this image and is honestly a tired can of worms in general. Needless to say, people have strong opinions for or against it, and I feel some people with strong opinions against it let those feelings gloss over the rest of the season. If you don’t, that’s cool. But you’re an exception to that trend.

@Cryosite  
I actually do like Season 3 for the most part as well. Except I am one of the ones who don’t like MMM. I have the same opinion of it as I do Man of Steel. I enjoy it as I watch it, but when I think about it afterwards the whole thing starts to fall apart.
 
Also, I think most of the Twilicorn backlash stemmed from the opinion that it was just too soon. If she had gained her wings during the Season 4 finale I think that most people wouldn’t have reacted so strongly.

@hollowblade  
@DonMaguz
 
As I prefaced, personal opinion. I don’t expect others to share my list of good and bad episodes. But overall, it feels like the density of good ones and general lack of bad ones in S3 makes it a much better season than most people recall. I think most people remember it as “the short season” and write it off as bad as a result. Or they’re the lingering anti-twilicorn folks who hare MMC so much that they’re unwilling to even acknowledge the rest of the season. Hell, Sombra has quite a few fans, and he’s from S3. I feel like people with a lot of different tastes would agree that S3 is a pretty good season, despite the shortness.
 
A group of friends and I used to actually do a 1-5 star rating for each episode as it aired, starting in S4 but retroactively went back and did the prior seasons, then figure out an average per season. Most of us discovered that there was an upward trend in seasons for us, including some who previously lauded S1-2 as the best.

@Goddess Erosia  

I honestly get tired of the fight between fans of the early and later seasons. Personally, I have nothing but the utmost respect for Lauren and the episodes she actually oversaw, and I think that the show would not have done so well after her departure had she not set up a solid foundation that those who followed could build off of. And in turn, I think the people who picked up after she left have done a great job continuing on with the world she created. Every season has hit or miss episodes, of course, but on the whole I’ve enjoyed every season all the way back to when that book first opened on the land of Equestria.

@Cryosite  
I may not agree on a few of the episodes you mentioned, but I definitely agree on your general idea.
 
FiM has been constantly improving, to improve they had to take risks and those risks have had both their payouts and their failed attempts.

@Cryosite
 
Season 3 has also has Just For Sidekicks, my second favorite Spike episode.