Season 8 Episode Discussion [Spoilers, possible leaks, rumours etc.]

@MadVillan  
The very mention of more separate worlds and neon cities has me worried for anything resembling coherency.

Plus I hate how the moral was just stated instead of naturally fitting the episode. It always bothered me when they went into “And I learned that blah blah”.

@gingerninja666  
Exactly, I stopped watching the leaked Rainbow/Applejack episode halfway through because it was the same lesson they learned back in season 1. Heck, the whole friendship school thing is ridiculous to me

@Pepsi Twist  
Glad I’m not the only one.

Now as for AJ’s role in Gen 4, I think her levelheadedness, and usual attitude of being reasonable without any real quirks led to her being less popular. It sounded nice in theory to have one character that’s almost always reliable and doesn’t lose their head but it obviously made her seem less interesting than the characters with wild wacky ideas, or the ones that even sometimes knew what they where doing was wrong, but did it out of selfishness.
 
If I where to try and align her more with the other Mane 6, I’d either give her some prevalent quirks. Like even though she’s always honest, she’s always scheming to make some extra bits. Not in a obvious dishonest conman way, more like a wannabe entrepreneur like the Ed’s. Sorta like how Rarity’s generosity is balanced by her love of usually expensive items and desire to be seen in high society.
 
That or either just combine her with Zecora. Ideally make her appear more often than Zecora, but always have some kind of sage advice or special solution like Zecora usually has. This would obviously mean the real Zecora wouldn’t be part of the show.
 
@Pepsi Twist  
Most definitely, not saying abandon them all-together just that it would be much more difficult to have an actual adventure and a friendship lesson in most episodes.
 
 
@Applejack007  
Yeah I agree.

What I hope they do for G5 is really amp up the cosmic nature of Celestia and Luna and really mystify them to the point where they’re more like legitimate forces of nature. But still essentially keeping their characters relatively the same as they were during G4.
 

 
@Applejack007  
That honestly had more to do with with the show’s intended demographic, which let’s be honest, was always little, little kids, ie. pre-school kids. Which I hear the new show is going to do away with that somewhat be aiming for a slightly older audience.

@Pepsi Twist
 
The friendship school thing at least sounds like it should’ve lead to an evolution in the types of lessons the cast could learn though.
 
Like, it’s one thing to learn a lesson yourself, it’s another to communicate that lesson to a new audience.
 
Honestly, I kinda feel like there’s a meta episode about how the show handles morals that could be tapped there. Imagine if one of the cast had to decide how to handle explaining a lesson to their class, and needing to choose between simple black and white problems that are easy to understand, and nuanced shades of grey ones that are more pertinent to your day to day life but are trickier for learners to wrap their heads around.

I really wish the movie was the mane six’s final adventure. Not saying they should be written out of the show completely, but from the looks of season eight they’re just using the new characters as tools for the mane six to learn the same morals as they did the past seven seasons and to make them out as the actual rulers of Equestria.
 
|| Mean Six itself felt like a season one episode, almost like they replaced Trixie with Queen Chrysalis and Spike with Starlight and threw in the Tree of Harmony. ||

@Pepsi Twist  
Rulers, but they’re just teachers.
 
Of kids that don’t seem that bad so far.

||Season 8 so far feels like a season that is building up a new set of major characters for potential future arcs.  
But if those leaks are to be believed. Then we would only have one more season of whatever they are setting us up for. Unless they make a surprise G4 extension or a string of post-season 9 specials detailing certain arc with certain characters. ||

@PonyPon  
||Teachers now, but in the series finale they’ll all have crowns and wings.
 
As for the students, they seem fine. But I fear they won’t have actual character growth themeselves and all of it will be given to their teachers. ||

I don’t have a problem with characters repeating morals, so shoot me, I guess.
 
Couple of days ago I finally watched the much maligned Applejack’s Day Off for the first time, and I had a total blast. See, I would’ve loved to see more of THAT Applejack across the seasons. What really killed AJ’s chances at popularity imo was how the fandom depiction of her got locked into the reliable working mare very early on to such a degree that any kind of deviation was met with, quite honestly, stupid amounts of scorn.

@PonyPon  
There would need to be a pretty significant time skip before I’d really accept any of them as rulers by the season finale, or even Season 9. It’s been what, 4 years at most since Twi’s moved to Ponyville? You can barely become a real teacher in that time, let alone a ruler. And Twi is leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the cast when it comes to actual development and growth, but even she’s only really been a princess for maybe 2 years in canon.

@Pepsi Twist
 
Eh, the rarity gag felt like a continuation of her previous camp adventures though, with her having gained enough experience to attempt ‘roughing it’ with only one saddlebag, and AJ and Dash’s instant recognition that Rarity was either struck by poison Joke or under a curse felt like the words of someone with more experience than they would’ve had in season 1.

@gingerninja666  
||Good point, also I’ll give them credit for having both normal and evil ponies having different interactions together instead of Twilight being the only one unknowningly bumping into the evil ponies. ||

I know I’ve posted this before, but, eh:
 
G5: Either Fosgitt’s or Darkdoomer’s art style, but with the movie ear style. Mane cast would be Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Starlight Glimmer, Scootaloo and Cheerilee, all completely different from their current incarnations except for species, though Cheerilee would be a pegasus and AJ would still be southern. Mane city would be Appleloosa. The focus would be on a magic school like Hogwarts, with Starlight as the main protagonist. Princess Luna would be the headmaster. Spike would be there too, as Luna’s assistant, this time voiced by Peter New. Other students of note would include Diamond Tiara, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Moondancer, Sunburst, Jet Set, Berry Pinch/Ruby Pinch, Tender Taps, Pinny Lane, Plaid Stripes (the beta bitch), and Flurry Heart (the alpha bitch). Rainbow Dash is the school groundskeeper, and has a pet griffon named Gabby. Teachers will include Twilight Sparkle (Magic), Sunset Shimmer (Gym), Starsong (Music), Toola Roola (Art) Chipcutter (woodshop) and Spoiled Milk (Home Economics)
 
Addendum: Would be CGI and Sci-Fi

@Pepsi Twist  

 
You have got to be kidding me…

@Pepsi Twist  
It does feel as if some of the mane six will learn something,  
but then forget it later on, just to make another script and plot work better…  
And end up relearning the moral again.  
Sometimes I think it works, like Pinkie Pie never really becoming a mature character,  
or Fluttershy never quite getting over her, shyness.

>no maudStar episode in season 8  
this makes me really sad. I liked their chemistry.

@Background Pony #C217  

 
I think just like Starlight’s kite thing, her friendship with Maud is treated as a throw away plot device. If anything, I think its main purpose was to give Starlight more friend fodder for Sunburst to mess around with in Uncommon Bond.

@fobone  

 
But would that change anything for the better? DHX said that Celestia is so powerful, they don’t know what to do with her (except using her as worfed punching bag).  
Now she finally gets her deserved meaningful screen time, just because DHX made her funny and sorta dumb.
 
If she and Luna somewhat become cosmic entities, I’m sure it would be even worse with DHX. Back to the background they would go to the point you wonder why they are even there.

That That Spike dad episode is gonna bring the feels, isn’t it?

@hironakamura  
Well they needed someone to be friends with Maud, and the entire main six had already tried and failed in her first episode. Plus, as noted, they have a weird amount of chemistry for two ponies with absolutely nothing in common.

Just found out Big Jim made a 1 word tweet.
 
Some people are getting a little carried away with reporting the leaks. I’ve seen a few on both EqD and Twitter calling for people to flag the videos (also emailing Youtube about them) on Youtube to take them down, when they can’t. There is no option in the reporting section for “illegally obtained content: Take it down”. The only way for someone other than Hasbro to do that would be a false DMCA claim. Anything these people try can get their accounts suspended for false reports. All they can do is furnish the links to Hasbro and let them take care of it. I’m sure Hasbro will submit it to the content ID system at some point.
 
And oh boy.

@Background Pony #B4D8  
I’ll agree with this. Unicorns need nerfing for G5. They get a spell associated with their mark and that’s it. And no “generally good with magic” marks like Twilight/Trixie/Starlight, those may as well be in a whole different league compared to other unicorns. Assuming they decide to keep Twilight a unicorn, she gets G1 Twilight teleport spell and that’s it. Same for Celestia & Luna. They move the sun and moon and that’s it. That’ll help keep power levels under control. So long as they don’t go putting some Elements of Harmony, instant-win-button, clone in.