Unpopular opinion time

@Prowl  
Him, Ember and more of the Dragon Lands, Startrix, Dash becoming a Wonderbolt, everything about The Saddle Row Review, Thorax and the finale.

Honestly the Show’s approach to designs completely changed since maybe season 4 , it went from Subtle design Choices to imply personality into obvious ones

Put me down for liking Sunburst AND Maud - but she needs carefully managing to avoid overuse, while he doesn’t.

@Latecomer  
It’s because Maud had zero justification behind all the appearances she got

@Broken Adam  
Some are justified, some gratuitous - kind of like Flutterbat.

@Latecomer  

 
By this point, it’s pretty much too late

@ILoveMyoozik  
Only if you mean there aren’t enough episodes left to overuse her in.

@Broken Adam  

 
Honestly I think they were constrained to the subtle. Everyone had the same body type, there wasn’t much room for variation.

@Latecomer  
I meant to say that it’s too late to say that she’s getting overused, cause she is by this point. I was getting tired of her by Season 7.

@ILoveMyoozik  
Hence “she needs careful management”. Although I would like to see which of her appearances you consider excessive.

@ILoveMyoozik  

 
In all honesty I only liked about 3 of those things listed. I wanted to be happy with RD being a Wonderbolt, but they managed to make it my least favorite episode in the whole show and then proceeded to do nothing with it, but i’d rather not go on another tangent, so i’ll just leave it at that
 
@Broken Adam  
Yeah, Maud is probably the perfect example of a character getting milked for all she’s worth, her appearances got predictable and boring by her 3rd episode

@Prowl  
How would you have done the Wonderbolt thing?

Now that I think about it, Garble getting an episode for himself was weird since they have been treating all characters that debuted in Seasons 1-3 as retired characters , especially with a lot of writers now coming later on and preferring characters that they themselves created

@Broken Adam  
Wasn’t Lightning Dust brought back just last season?

@Latecomer  
Excessive is too strong of a word, but just any episode where she either gets the spotlight or makes a major appearance while Limestone and Marble get shafted. Rock Solod Friendship was the episode that pretty much told me that Maud was wearing out her welcome even if I did like the episode.
 
@Broken Adam  
It’s not really weird, they just wanted to try out something with him.

@LightningBolt
 
Because I’ve never really been given a reason to think of him as more than Starlight’s baggage. He only seems to exist to be shipping fuel for her (Startrix is better), and he’s not a particularly compelling character beyond that. And there’s always been something I’ve found particularly irksome about the notion that he’s yet another “unicorn prodigy” who was recognized for how amazing he is, while the true prodigy was completely overlooked, because there’s absolutely nothing he’s done that’s more impressive than what we’ve seen Starlight do.
 
And on top of that, he’s just a friggin’ prick. I like him a little less in nearly every episode he appears in. “Oh, look, I have more in common with deadpan Maud than I do with you, Starlight!” “Just shut up and let me answer the questions, Twilight, since it’s not like you’re the reigning trivia champion or anything!”

@ILoveMyoozik  
I don’t see any rule that says all Pie sisters must get balanced focus - if so, Pinkie kind of broke it from the beginning. And I’ll always have a welcome for Maud used well - she’s just easy to mishandle or throw in just because.

@Spinny  
Erm, that’s sort of the point, he isn’t really a prodigy and didn’t amount to much. He’s a good example of a unicorn on the losing side of the magical power equation.
 
Now as for disliking his personality, that’s your prerogative. I do think he might be growing a bit of an ego now that he’s over his inferiority complex…

@Latecomer  
She was popular

Yes, but still a Season 3 character. So there doesn’t seem to have been any big retiring - just newer writers preferring newer characters.
 
(Oh - and Iron Will was in S7!

@Broken Adam
 
That’s because they don’t want to leave dangerous loose ends before the finale.

@Mildgyth  
theres like a Dozen loose end they didn’t bother addressing at all and we have only 5 episodes left

@Broken Adam
 
Dangerous is the key word in there, since i’m referring to antagonists - they probably won’t give resolutions to Flim, Flam or Iron Will, but Garble was dangerous enough to warrant some resolution. _{Which if you think about it, wasn’t a real resolution at all, but…}

@Mildgyth  
It really wasn’t, it didn’t feel natural or like he earned it.

@Broken Adam  
Designing and approving ponies with human hair instead of pony manes was also one of the things that the new staff pushed very hard from S05 onwards. That and the overdsigned, overpainted backgrounds that clash so badly with the still flat colored ponies.