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Description
So there’s an episode called “28 pranks later”. Usually I watch an episode, make a comic about it and then write here what I think about it, at least since Season 6. And apparently it works with some episodes like Gauntlet of Fire But instead of watching this episode, I’m going to skip it. I’m not going to watch it.
I’ll tell you why. One of the many reasons why I love this TV show is because of the writing and the talent of the writers to give us not only enjoyable moments, but also relatable stories which you connect with the characters. Most of my favourite episodes works like that perfectly. Call of the Cutie, Putting your hoof down, Rarity Takes Manehattan, Sleepless in Ponyville, Crusaders of the lost mark, Bloom & Gloom, Sisterhooves Social, Over a Barrel… And the writers usually put something new in these stories. Call of the Cutie was the first episode where we know what the purpose of the Cutie Mark is many years before it was mainstream, tiring and all over the place (Magical Mystery Cure, Cutie Map, Cutie Re-Mark). Sleepless in Ponyville was great not only because it’s the first Scootaloo episode, but because it has a relatable conflict and we want to see her ok at the end of the story. Putting your hoof down was one of the very few episodes where I cried a bit because I want to see these characters ok. Party of One is incredible because it show to us one aspect of Pinkie Pie that we didn’t expect to come back and it has really funny moments and a charming story.
In August I was on the MLP wikia and I read the plot of “28 pranks later”. According to the website, “Rainbow Dash’s pranking gets out of hand, so the other ponies decide to give her a taste of her own medicine.”
Ok.
I’ll tell you why. One of the many reasons why I love this TV show is because of the writing and the talent of the writers to give us not only enjoyable moments, but also relatable stories which you connect with the characters. Most of my favourite episodes works like that perfectly. Call of the Cutie, Putting your hoof down, Rarity Takes Manehattan, Sleepless in Ponyville, Crusaders of the lost mark, Bloom & Gloom, Sisterhooves Social, Over a Barrel… And the writers usually put something new in these stories. Call of the Cutie was the first episode where we know what the purpose of the Cutie Mark is many years before it was mainstream, tiring and all over the place (Magical Mystery Cure, Cutie Map, Cutie Re-Mark). Sleepless in Ponyville was great not only because it’s the first Scootaloo episode, but because it has a relatable conflict and we want to see her ok at the end of the story. Putting your hoof down was one of the very few episodes where I cried a bit because I want to see these characters ok. Party of One is incredible because it show to us one aspect of Pinkie Pie that we didn’t expect to come back and it has really funny moments and a charming story.
In August I was on the MLP wikia and I read the plot of “28 pranks later”. According to the website, “Rainbow Dash’s pranking gets out of hand, so the other ponies decide to give her a taste of her own medicine.”
Ok.
- This trope about someone who pranks to everyone until he receives the biggest prank is something that I’ve seen a million times in movies, shorts and TV shows.
- Whoever wrote this forgot one detail from the season 1, in Griffon the brush off, where Pinkie Pie said that even the most harmless prank and Rainbow Dash agreed.
- I’m 100% sure that this episode is just a compendium of slapsticks and nothing else. I was curious and I saw some screencaps from the MLP wikia and it seems to be that, a compendium of slapsticks with no interesting story. I’m also pretty sure that Pinkie Pie could be incredibly obnoxious like she is since season 3.
- If there’s no Celestia episode, no episode with new locations, no episode with new ways to narrate a story (like Bloom & Gloom, for example), very few episodes with the Cutie Mark Crusadersas as the main characters, no episodes with new evil villains but they green-lighted this episode, I’m worried about what is going to be the future episodes about. I mean, what’s the next step? Pinkie Pie eating the ground for 22 minutes because she thinks it’s chocolate? Rarity making dreeses for houses because it’s raining? Fluttershy desperately looking for ducks in the whole Ponyville because… she is cute? Lesson Zero with Starlight Glimmer as the main character?
Because of these four points, I was like “there’s no way I’m going to enjoy this”. Maybe the episode is funny, maybe it’s good. It’s a possibility. But this episode seems to be the easiest one to write in the entire show (it’s basically the first point that I wrote). This kind of concept doesn’t appeal to me. It’s not what I’m looking for in this TV show. My favourite episodes didn’t work like that.
I was talking about this with my older brother and explained to him why I don’t want to see it.
“So, brother, because of this, I’m going to see the next episode, that one with the changeling apparently.”
“Oh man, that episode is great!”
“Really?”
“I think you’re going to like that one.”
“Well, if you say so…”
“However, I have to say this right now: Pinkie Pie is one of the main characters.”
“Oh, god… Well, I hope she’s as charming as she was in the first seasons.”
“Hum, don’t expect that.”
“Good lord…”
So, yeah, hopefully the changeling episode is good and creative.
My thoughts exactly.
Ignoring the bad ain’t the same as acknowledging then disregarding the bad. I don’t like focusing on the bad because it takes me energy, so I don’t if I can. X3
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You don’t have to pretend the bad isn’t bad though.
@thps48
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Eh. The acting, dialogue, art style, and sound design for G4 have been of greater quality than past offerings of the franchise and in fact Girls’ Animation collectively, lending to its frequent comparisons to Bronze Age Animation: Faust, McCraken, Hartmann, Tartakovsky.
Nothing is perfect. But MLP:FIM is as close to it as it can get.
Yeah, I know. I freakin’ know! xD
Out of the newer writers, I think Ed Valentine, who’s responsible for some of the not great Fairly Oddparents episodes, understood Dash the most. Hence my avatar. That was my favourite S4 episode beating out even Pinkie Pride. As did whoever wrote Common Ground in S9.
Edited
That could certain explain “28 Pranks Later,” if someone read the synopsis for “Griffon the Brush Off” and assumed “Okay, Rainbow Dash is a prankster and that’s an established character trait, let’s do a thing with that.” (See, that’s my issue with the episode, not that she breaks the “don’t prank Fluttershy” rule but it comes across like a writer had Dash described to them but hadn’t actually seen more than two episodes before.)
Because it’s so hard to forget something you were quickly told.
Also The episode shortly after griffon the brush off But fluttershy faced against a dragon
Unfortunately Pinkie in Filli Vanilli does not fall under that excuse, as Amy wrote that episode.
Sometimes, but also, it has been said the new writers hired in the latter half of the show’s lifespan didn’t watch most if not any then prior episodes, and were suggested by senior staff to read synopses on the MLP Wikia in order to save time. I then presumed any subsequent episodes with morals and themes similar to that of an earlier episode; in certain cases, near exact carbon copies of said previous episodes and their morals and themes; were the result of their collective stupidity. This next sentence is not completely related to the current discussion: The numerous occasions of a character’s disconnect to their previous iterations in an earlier season may be considered another symptom of the preceding allegations. Pinkie in Filli Vanilli, Twilight frequently zipping back and forth between anxious and collected, literally any episode starring a dragon.
Or that there was a bit more nuance.
More like the show went on long enough the only way they could tell more stories was by contradicting old ones. There are a lot of episodes in the second half of the show’s run where the moral of the story is the literal opposite of an early episode and the characters come across as hypocrites.
I have this same problem with The Mysterious Mare Do Well where the Mane 5 were being hypocritical, just to get back at Rainbow.
Edited
I kinda understand your opinion. Since I myself have a similar attitude to the ‘development’ of the series.
I see it this way: each writer has their opinion in relation to the canon, their headcanons, “confirmed” or refuted by the direction of the rest of the writers by the main writer (first Lauren, then mostly Meghan). And each writer at the beginning of the episode is its own separate parallel canon universe. As there are separate universes in Rick and Morty, but closer to each other.
Sometimes some writers write about different universes.