Vent Thread - Pony Edition

Vent thread for anything pony-related. Yay?
 
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The epilogue is an Everest-sized mountain of goat piss. The Ending of the End should have been last episode. Even though it inherits the problems common in later seasons, it is an adequate finale. And the ending at Canterlot doughnut shop, like season one finale, is a better bookend than the literal bookend of the epilogue.

Season 3 was the last season I liked. Season 4 was hit or miss, and everything after (except Rock Solid Friendship, which is one of my favorite episodes) I largely ignore.
 
The Cutie Re-Mark was the worst episode ever, by a lot, until it was eclipsed by the rancid, festering, Tsar Bomba sized disaster of Fame and Misfortune that took the series and blew it straight to hell and then took the smouldering remains and took a dump on it, and then flung it all straight into a black hole of suck.
 
It is literally impossible to even talk to someone who likes the episode because they are smug assholes who take ANY differing opinion, ANY criticism of the episode at all as absolute and unimpeachable proof that the episode is right and that anyone who disagrees with any aspect of the show for any reason on any level is a worthless, irredeemable, whingey neckbeard who deserves to be kicked in the teeth for all eternity.
 
I hate that they took all the ponies I’d grown to love over 7 years and turn them all into assholes who hurl vicious abuse at the Mane 6 for 20 minutes, then they sing a song about how plot holes make the show more perfect or something and anyone who complains is a neckbeard, then the problem is never resolved and forgotten about in the next episode.

@UrbanMysticDee  
Fame and Misfortune was Big Jim pulling a TSP. He openenly hated the fandom for calling out his dumb decisions and poor showings so he took the fan favourite writer Larson, who had already taken the fall once for the rest of the writing staffs fumbling of Twilights ascention, and demanded he write a hit peice about the fans. Larson refused and wrote what would of been an intresting episode about Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory instead, so Big Jim assumed direct control and wrote his troll peice but kept Larsons name on it hopeing not to catch any flack for it. However by the time it came out Larson had allready left and just spilled the tea at a con.
 
In all it just went after low hanging fruit people that we all laugh at anyway but failed to address the more substantial criticisms that had been leveled, so realy it came off as whineing rather than haveing a point.

A Matter of Principals is one of the worst episodes of the entire series. This episode has so much wrong on it that listing it makes me blow a gasket. This episode was what made me hate Discord and wish that he just went away.

@Myoozik  
Don’t hate Discord, hate the later seasons that deviated so far from what made the show great in the first place.

@UrbanMysticDee  
Eh, I don’t hate the later seasons as much as others do. I’ll admit that the show got weak as it went on, but I still enjoyed a lot of the episodes and I do like some of the new concepts that they introduced like the Table and the Student 6. What I didn’t enjoy was Discord’s character derailment, that was a massive fuck up.

@UrbanMysticDee  
The show started flagging the longer it went on for two reasons:
 
The first thing is perfectly exemplified by Nightmare Moon pre and post Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1 and 2. What made the first couple of seasons so good was very little was stated explicitly; things were vague and implied, hinting at great and dark events allowing the children not to be disturbed by anything too challenging and the adults to fill the spaces with amazing ideas. When we were first told about Nightmare Moon being banished after a rebellion, people imagined great wars, tragic losses, heroic battles and heart wrenching separations. But when we got to see it in the show, it was a little temper tantrum and a couple of lasers that lasted about a minute, so the world of MLP shrunk a little bit.
 
With each underwhelming clarification the world shrunk and shrivelled to a mundane, simplistic and dull world and all the grandiosity and implied depth was gone.
 
The second issue was trying to fill the gap they had created by over explaining with memes and references. Instead of focusing on strong social lessons, good characterisation, implied shadows of vast forces and genuine earnest optimism. The show tried to pander to the internet by being cynical, referencing pop culture and throwing in exploitable meme faces. You can see the change clearly by comparing the original wide eyed idealist protagonist Twilight and the sarcastic and acerbic replacement Protagonist Starlight.

The show should have wrapped up and ended around S6 or the writers should have committed to promoting a new central cast and retiring the M6 to secondary characters. The M6 achieved their major life goals yet still had to be called on to save the day again and again (or simply have another episode where Fluttershy learns to be assertive). Especially for the students, we never got enough screentime with the various replacements for the new mane cast to get to know them like we got to know the M6: there were too many M6 and Starlight episodes in the final two seasons, so the students were relegated to ensemble episodes. No wonder they had no characterization.
 
Also, Rainbow Dash should not have stayed with the Wonderbolts. It’s fine that she got accepted, but it would have been a much better story arc if she later parted ways and made her living as a solo stuntmare. Teach the lesson that sometimes your childhood dream is not your real passion.
 
@RavenandWritingDesk  

 
The longer the show went on, the less new settings felt like big reveals. It became increasingly obvious it was that they were soundstages that popped into existence at the start of the episode and go into stasis or deletion when the credits roll.  
It reminds me of when a young child tells you an awesome story with every cool character they can think of. With each new character they introduce, the story as a whole becomes that much less awesome.

Luna is a shit character. She’s the ZOMG! LUAN IZ TEH BESTEST EVAR!!!1foaming rabid fan character and the writers had to shit on Celestia in later seasons to appease the hellfans.

Trixie.  
God, poor fucking Trixie.  
What did the internet do to her in the past two to three years?

@RavenandWritingDesk  

 
I blame Bronies and social media.
 
When bronies came into the picture, the show was no longer just family entertainment and life lessons for kids. The bronies provided an audience that was receptive to excessive pop culture references, DBZ-style fights, meme faces, fanservice, unnecessarily complex story arcs, loredumps, etc. And social media gave the show staff a means of easy and instant communication with the bronies, creating a feedback loop. Thus, because the show staff knew that bronies were watching the show and could gauge their reactions to stuff, they focused more and more on pandering to bronies at the expense of its original mission. And bronies’ excessive analysis and speculation about the show’s setting created an incentive for the writers to pave over all of the mystery with ‘muh deep lore,’ which they wouldn’t have done if nobody was asking those questions in the first place.
 
In other words, all that stuff was put into the show only because the writers knew there was an audience paying attention who would react to it. Contrast it with the Gen 1 show, where there are very few consistent features between episodes because its writers knew that their audience didn’t care about lore.
 
 
@Myoozik  
@UrbanMysticDee  
Like certain other characters in the show, Discord was a great antagonist who got neutered by an unnecessary redemption. And like certain other characters, there was no need for Discord to appear more than once and twice. In his original incarnation, he was essentially a force of nature that couldn’t be bargained with, a persona for an amorphous concept, and as long as that was the case you don’t have to ask questions about his origins, motivations, behavior, etc. because he was just chaos being chaos, with no obligation to abide by pony morality.
 
But of course, they had to keep bringing him back again and again and again because everyone wanted an excuse to keep John DeLancie around (see my above point about pandering).
 
 
@UrbanMysticDee  
I always found Luna a lot more relatable than Celestia or Cadance. Luna has flaws and undergoes character growth while Celestia, Cadance, and even Twilight to some extent are Mary Sues who are given everything on a silver platter.

Dragons started out as ancient, gigantic, majestic creatures. They were then turned into dude bros.

They turned everything to shit.

@UrbanMysticDee
It’s classic villain decay.

the Four Faggotries of the Fandom in Decline

@Fleur de Lis
…which are?

Sometimes when I think of Trixie I become really down. I haven’t felt this bad for any other fictional character in a long time. It just dawned on me one night how badly Trixie gets treated both in the show and in the community. Not only do people not respect her character enough so they have to turn her trans or whatever the fuck, but she isn’t respected in the show either after her redemption unlike other “villains.” Starlight did much worse shit than she did and was immediately forgiven and got all the friends she could’ve ever wanted, while Trixie was still hated by most people, the only person who seems to even remotely care about her is Starlight.

Sorry if that sounded really fucking stupid, I just needed to get that off my chest.

@Anonymous #ED56
Starlight did worse than every other character in the show combined and she was rewarded and the show writers shoved her down our throats for several seasons.

Trixie legit did nothing wrong and was treated like shit by everyone in the show.

@UrbanMysticDee
My mood has been down the entire day because I keep thinking of how badly Trixie was treated.
What the actual fuck is wrong with me, this cannot be normal.
I’m too lazy to type out another “trixie vent paragraph” right now so I’ll just post this, it sums up my thoughts well.
also based flair

Trixie did get more punishment for what happened in “Boast Busters” (a lot) than she deserved (none). Other than that, she did okay. No real punishment for “Magic Duel”, other than being out the money she paid for the Amulet. Her stage shows started drawing crowds and cheers again, even in Ponyville. Guidance counselor at Diversity High. Celestia gave her a medal of heroism after her sacrifice in the changeling hive.
Also, I don’t know if horsesarefkinweird stopped watching “No Second Prances” halfway through, but toward the end, Twilight literally tells Trixie “I was wrong. I’m sorry”. She had to mistrust Trixie in order to learn that she shouldn’t have.
Hopefully it’ll help to remember that Triskie did eventually bounce back to find success and happiness.

Now, Twist, on the other hand. There’s a pony the fans forgot to give a shit about.
(i know her VA ditched Canada)

@lasty
I respect your optimism, but there’s a few things I want to say.

I wouldn’t exactly say Trixie did “ok” after Boast Busters, she was ostracized no matter where she went, and had no home. Those two combined are a recipe for a fucked up mental state that’ll eat away at you. And considering what she did with the amulet, it likely did.

Regarding what happened to her after Magic Duel, I’m not so sure. I know she got a new wagon, but I don’t think life really got all that much better for her. Two things she said in No Second Prances really stuck out to me.

“Everypony always says they’ll give you a second chance, but deep down, they never forget.”

And her conversation with Starlight:

“You ever have one of those days?”
“For me, they’re all one of those days.”

Unrelated, but I’ve always wanted to see Trixie become friends with the Mane 6 and Twilight, and seeing that happen with Starlight (someone who did arguably worse things and got forgiven immediately) instead of Trixie just felt like a slap in the face, I guess.

And I’m not even gonna get into the trans shit, that’s a whole other can of worms that annoys me to no end, but I think I’ve already voiced my distaste for that enough.

@Anonymous #ED56
Not directly after “Boast Busters”, no. Or directly after “Magic Duel” or even “No Second Prances”. But with time, she found a happier life. The ‘eventually’ in the part about bouncing back was important.

I guess what I’m getting at is, Trixie took some lumps, not all of them deserved. It was unfair. But that’s not all there is to her story. Next time you think about her falling on her face or her vandalized cart or Twilight giving her that insincere grin, remember the better times. Sharing cider with Starlight. Getting her medal. Twilight claiming she couldn’t have pulled off the Moonshot Manticore Mouth-Dive and Trixie graciously thanking her. The cheers her shows got during “Road to Friendship”. Becoming friends with Sunburst. Starlight trusting her to take over a job she considers important. None of her misfortunes could keep her from ultimately living a happy life. And maybe, if you remember that, you won’t spend another day feeling down about the bad parts.

Maybe.

@lasty
That’s all well and good, I’m glad she did better than I initally remembered, but there are a few other irks, albeit minor. I guess I’m still just really disappointed she didn’t end up becoming part of the main cast or friends with the Mane 6 like Starlight did. That’s something I’ve always wanted to see happen, and having Starlight get all of that handed to her on a silver platter even though she was introduced well into the show’s lifetime just felt like a giant slap in the face. Trixie has been around before the show even started and basically got a single pea on a plate compared to her. I like Starlight well enough, and I really hate to sound ungrateful, but the writers definitely had a bias towards her.

This next one isn’t really a big deal, but it’s disappointing to see just how many people hate Trixie because she’s “selfish” or “a bad person” when she’s shown herself to be quite the opposite, I don’t know how people completely miss the entire point of her character arc. I’m not saying people must like Trixie of course, that’s fine and there’s plenty of valid reasons to dislike her, I just think a lot of people have the wrong idea of her.

As the saying goes, “better to be a villain than an asshole”

Including Tirek and Chrysalis (or Discord)?

@Anonymous #ED56
What’s the difference between P and B in those lists?

@πʊßƛįϰ
Starlight came within a hair’s breadth of destroying all of existence because her friend moved to a different town and she was too retarded to write a letter, or call him on the phone, or get on a bus and visit. That’s easily the worst thing any of the villains has ever done, and for the stupidest reason.

@UrbanMysticDee
We’ve established that she’s a chromosome hoarder. I find her villainy to be negligent ponyslaughter more so than murder, if that makes sense.