Poll: MLP Has Jumped the Shark

Mikeyfell

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Aug 24, 2010
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I still like the show, Season 3 has had some of the best episodes in it.
And some of the worst episodes too... And that's just because I don't care about Apple Jack and she's got a lot of attention this season, but over all I like season 3 a lot.

I heard somewhere that MLP is supposed to be finite, like it's actually leading up to some sort of conclusion. If that turns out to be true it's worth sticking around for even if the show did start to loose it's charm.
 

mronoc

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Nov 12, 2008
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Yeah, season 1 was great, there was a solid understanding of story structure and characterization that I have to believe came largely from Lauren Faust (if you look back at the episodes of "Foster's" she wrote, there's that same understanding of the fundamentals of storytelling). Season two started strong (though not as strong as late season 1), but the further it went along, the more you'd see shortcomings in story structure, a lot of the writing became less about character and story, and more about gags, and that's fine I guess, it just doesn't carry the same weight. Near the middle of season 2, there were episodes that worked as a series of sequences, but not so much as coherent narratives (The Last Roundup's a pretty good example of this), but from "It's About Time" onward, it was pretty dull. A few episodes have been pretty decent here and there, mostly episodes that were in development for a long time ("Magic Duel" and Season 2 finale were alright), but generally, it feels pretty vapid as of late.

Then there's the visual nitpicks, a lot of more recent pony designs ("Hurricane Fluttershy") just don't seem to fit in the universe in terms of color and silhouette, and they've really started to push the boundaries of taste regarding what you can do with squashing and stretching symbols in flash.
 

Azo Galvat

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Mar 3, 2011
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Season 3 is really the one that's convincing me the show is declining a bit, but no sharks have been jumped.
 

V da Mighty Taco

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I agree for the most part, but I feel like Season 3's been more of a return to form (though FiD ties for my favorite episode). Season 2 took the series in a bad direction, and I do blame Lesson Zero for that (I still like the episode, however). Season 3 feels more character-based and far less flanderized, which I'm enjoying. Season 1 is still the best though, imho.

As for the Wedding episodes: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DX<

So much wasted potential and plotholes out the ass, particularly with the third act of episode 2. Chrysalis and the changelings suddenly becoming idiots after her reveal, 2 crippled / half-dead ponies curb-stomping the entire changeling army when Celestia literally got knocked out in one hit by the queen alone (my biggest complaint), Chrysalis underestimating love when she's powered by it, etc. I can go on and on and fucking on about all the plotholes in these episodes. While I do enjoy the episodes some, you will be hard pressed to find a bigger critic of ACW than me.

Admittedly though, the only episode I full on don't like is a Season 1 episode - Owl's Well That Ends Well. Emo Spike is worst pony.
 

BeeGeenie

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May 30, 2012
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pirateninj4 said:
Most people say this show was never any good. That says it all imo.
Actually, I think what that says is that most people are trolls. No big surprises there.
 

Sylveria

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Nov 15, 2009
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Filiecs said:
Sylveria said:
*Facepalm* Okay, bronies. I've kinda been between supportive of your enthusiasm to indifferent to it.. but now you're just getting stupid. You're talking about a show about multicolored, talking horses getting "too rediculous." This isn't The Wire, you're taking this stuff WAY too seriously.
Quite a few bronies like over-analysing the show just like other fandoms do, and who's to blame them if it's fun? It's just like having any other online discussion in your spare time, just about ponies.

While a lot of people do take the show seriously, not nearly as many people actually get legit angry over the show.

Edit: On topic, I do think the overall quality has dipped slightly but I'll wait till' season 4 to pass judgement. I think Sleepless in Ponyville was one of the best episodes ever, though.
I'm not condemning the discussion of the show. Feel free, I encourage you to let your freak flag fly and fly it high.

I'm more baffled by the concept of "Shark jumping" in a series which is already completely fantastical. Heck I can easily see RainbowDash jet-ski jumping over a shark being completely within the realm of possibilities of the show.

If the quality of the writing has declined, that's not shark-jumping. "Jumping the Shark" has a context to it, it is not the catch-all term for lowered show quality. If they spice up the show up by having aliens invade.. then it's jumping the shark.
 

Flaery

Ghetto Trash
Dec 23, 2012
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I agree that the show has changed since it's first season, probably from the fact it's a little more self-aware of it's situation. I still like it and while I can agree it's changed I wouldn't say it's jumped the shark.
 

Misterian

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Oct 3, 2009
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I don't see anything suggest Season 3 is causing any decline on MLP.

I know that lately the show is now is doing more to take the Brony part of the fandom into account, and so far it seems to be a step in the right direction for them, so bottom line, I think the show's getting even better.
 

ultimateownage

This name was cool in 2008.
Feb 11, 2009
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You are all critiquing a TV show made for little girls, to sell toys. I don't think little girls and the parents that watch it with them have very high standards.

And get your terminology right. This isn't what 'jumping the shark' means.
 

V da Mighty Taco

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Apr 9, 2011
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mronoc said:
Yeah, season 1 was great, there was a solid understanding of story structure and characterization that I have to believe came largely from Lauren Faust (if you look back at the episodes of "Foster's" she wrote, there's that same understanding of the fundamentals of storytelling). Season two started strong (though not as strong as late season 1), but the further it went along, the more you'd see shortcomings in story structure, a lot of the writing became less about character and story, and more about gags, and that's fine I guess, it just doesn't carry the same weight. Near the middle of season 2, there were episodes that worked as a series of sequences, but not so much as coherent narratives (The Last Roundup's a pretty good example of this), but from "It's About Time" onward, it was pretty dull. A few episodes have been pretty decent here and there, mostly episodes that were in development for a long time ("Magic Duel" and Season 2 finale were alright), but generally, it feels pretty vapid as of late.

Then there's the visual nitpicks, a lot of more recent pony designs ("Hurricane Fluttershy") just don't seem to fit in the universe in terms of color and silhouette, and they've really started to push the boundaries of taste regarding what you can do with squashing and stretching symbols in flash.
Sorry, but Magic Duel is undoubtedly my least favorite S3 episode so far. Outside of the fact that I never liking Trixie for being a stuck up, unlikable *****; Fluttershy's character building went backwards, Trixie's redemption was even more sudden and nonsensical than Discord's (completely lacking any sort of character arc to get there), there was a distinct lack of humor outside of the gender-swap scene, and the whole episode felt like forced pandering to Trixie fans.

Also, you don't want me to talk about the Wedding. I can ***** about that disaster for a full day straight.
 

Durgiun

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Dec 25, 2008
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From season 1 to season 3 the quality has steadily declined. I attribute it to Luren Faust not having as much weight in the production of the shows.

I'm thinking she hears the general idea for the episode, maybe a synopsis, but she doesn't read the dialogue. And the dialogue is what sucks. Dialogue gives us insight into characters and the characters have become cheap Flanderized shells of their former selves. They're now either stupid or so loony that I find myself rooting for their destruction.
Before they were well-rounded characters first and quirks second. See Gravity Falls for a good example of that. Now they're just quirks.

I can name only 2, maybe 3 episodes in season 3 that I either liked or didn't hate.

So, no the show hasn't jumped the shark. It stabbed the shark with the vaulting pole.
 

mronoc

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Nov 12, 2008
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V da Mighty Taco said:
mronoc said:
Yeah, season 1 was great, there was a solid understanding of story structure and characterization that I have to believe came largely from Lauren Faust (if you look back at the episodes of "Foster's" she wrote, there's that same understanding of the fundamentals of storytelling). Season two started strong (though not as strong as late season 1), but the further it went along, the more you'd see shortcomings in story structure, a lot of the writing became less about character and story, and more about gags, and that's fine I guess, it just doesn't carry the same weight. Near the middle of season 2, there were episodes that worked as a series of sequences, but not so much as coherent narratives (The Last Roundup's a pretty good example of this), but from "It's About Time" onward, it was pretty dull. A few episodes have been pretty decent here and there, mostly episodes that were in development for a long time ("Magic Duel" and Season 2 finale were alright), but generally, it feels pretty vapid as of late.

Then there's the visual nitpicks, a lot of more recent pony designs ("Hurricane Fluttershy") just don't seem to fit in the universe in terms of color and silhouette, and they've really started to push the boundaries of taste regarding what you can do with squashing and stretching symbols in flash.
Sorry, but Magic Duel is undoubtedly my least favorite S3 episode so far. Outside of the fact that I never liking Trixie for being a stuck up, unlikable *****; Fluttershy's character building went backwards, Trixie's redemption was even more sudden and nonsensical than Discord's (completely lacking any sort of character arc to get there), there was a distinct lack of humor outside of the gender-swap scene, and the whole episode felt like forced pandering to Trixie fans.

Also, you don't want me to talk about the Wedding. I can ***** about that disaster for a full day straight.
Eh, I honestly don't remember much about Magic Duel, just that I enjoyed it a lot more than any of the other S3 eps. I honestly haven't been watching the show at all lately, maybe I just liked it for Trixie's abuse of Snips and Snails. Regarding the Royal Wedding, on some level the whole thing was kind of forced into existence by toy execs, obviously, but I have a certain appreciation for some of the choices they made to make it work. BBBFF was really hokey, but other than that, the out-of-nowhere relationships were introduced in a way that at least conveyed some semblance of texture (i.e. Twilight starting off kind of pissed at everyone involved). The story was simple and stock enough that there weren't any structural hiccups, and even though you know how it's going to turn out the whole time, I thought there was enough of a moment of doubt right at the critical moment for the twist to kind of work. Also I'm just a sucker for Disney Villain style musical numbers, and the melodramatic nature of the song was at least enough to establish the stakes. If I'm being honest, part 2 is just a series of neat animated sequences (big musical number, chrysalis reveal, big fight scene), with part 1 doing just enough narrative leg work to give it some semblance of weight.
 

Shadowstar38

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Jul 20, 2011
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People have been going on about this since season 2 started. It always sounds like overexagerated bullshit coming from the fact that the novelty of the show's worn off. The quality's been consistent through each season with great episodes and a few under par ones mixed in.

What I'm saying is, I still enjoy it as much as when I watched the first episode. Maybe everyone just needs to stop nitpicking and just enjoy the thing or move on.
 

scorptatious

The Resident Team ICO Fanboy
May 14, 2009
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Lazy said:
While there are a couple of episodes I'm not so fond of, I've found season 3's quality to be more consistent than 2. Even the few episodes I don't particularly like are still quite watchable.

Rainbow Dash's character especially has been handled a lot better than she was in season 2, where she was just straight-up unlikable a lot of the time.
Agreed. That episode improved my opinion of Rainbow Dash greatly.

OT: I'll admit, some episodes this season weren't that great. (I didn't really like Spike at your Service)

Other episodes, like Sleepless in Ponyville, I still found to be quite enjoyable.

So I don't think the show has gotten worse per say. Every show has it's bad episodes, no matter how good the overall show is.
 

Erttheking

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Ekit said:
Dangit2019 said:
Ekit said:
MLP jumped the shark with the episode Feeling Pinkie Keen. That was one of the most infuriating and insulting things I have ever seen in childrens programming.

Religious propaganda should be kept out of this kind type of entertainment!
lolwut
The episode Feeling Pinkie Keen is religious and anti-science propaganda. The moral of the story is that you should believe the supernatural explanations to things that you can't explain, that rationality and deductive reasoning always should be put second to blind belief and that trying to find out objective facts about reality on your own is a pointless endeavour.

That is a horrible moral and something that in my opinion doesn't belong in a program aimed at children.

For those who haven't seen the episode. The episode is about Pinkie Pie's supernatural ability to predict the future. Twilight Sparkle tries the entire episode to find a rational explanation to why Pinkie Pie can defy the rules of reality and keeps telling herself that Pinkie Pie's predictions are just coincidences.

In the end though she gives up trying to find a logical explanation to Pinkie Pie's ability and just accepts the fact that Pinkie Pie can predict the future and that there is no explanation.

The episode ends with this quote:
Twilight Sparkle said:
Dear Princess Celestia,

I am happy to report that I now realize there are wonderful things in this world you just can't explain, but that doesn't necessarily make them any less true. It just means you have to choose to believe in them.
Methinks that you're over analyzing a little bit. Also you are blowing it way way way WAY out of proportion. See Lauren's thoughts on it.

http://pandasennin.deviantart.com/art/Lauren-Faust-s-2-cent-on-Feeling-Pinkie-Keen-285338098
 

IamLEAM1983

Neloth's got swag.
Aug 22, 2011
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Drathnoxis said:
This is a troll post, right? Right? Discord approved and all?
Ahem.

It's a kid's show. We're adults watching a kid's show. I think inconsistencies are to be noticed because, like it or not, we, the adults, are not the show's target demographic. MLP isn't being made for Bronies. It isn't made for the Cloppers or the Cupcake creepypasta writers or the DiscoPie or FlutterCord fans - it certainly isn't made for the Rule 34 artists loading Paheal with raunchy equine females or chimeric beings endowed with nightmarishly impossible privates.

It's made for kids. Kids are stupid. Kids watch a show, like it because it was colorful and whimsical and a distraction from having to do their homework. Faust and crew slapped in adult references to give *sosmething* to the young parents in our midst that would be stuck watching this with their daughters. That's literally the only reason why we've seen Doctor Whooves, the Big Lebowski ponies, the Batman: TAS references, Discord more or less cribbing from Q's handbook down to being voiced by the same actor...

That's it. I'm a really casual Brony myself and honestly, some fans are taking their interest way too far. Friendship is Magic hasn't set out to provoke a culture shift or speak to twenty and thirty-somethings. That's just a fluke, something that happened outside of anyone's control.

With that in mind, it hasn't jumped the shark. It's just doing its thing - which is essentially pushing merch to young girls. Life lessons are thrown in mostly because it's considered gauche to indulge in brainless fun in today's cartoon-producing culture.

So, yeah. Love and tolerate? More like love and go burn cash at the toy store for pink plastic shit.

The show's good, but to pretend that it's some kind of immense cultural vector is just plainly delusional. Give it a few years and we'll have a new generation of five to ten year-olds waiting for something that's sufficiently cute and inoffensive to obsess over.
 

Lunar Templar

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i though season 2 was *clears throat*

FUCKING
AWESOME

with a lot of well though out eps, the finally being one of them, season 3 >.> has been kinda eh ... so far, but there's aso been a lot more CMC content, is it could just be that
 

Extra-Ordinary

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Mar 17, 2010
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Shadowstar38 said:
People have been going on about this since season 2 started. It always sounds like overexagerated bullshit coming from the fact that the novelty of the show's worn off. The quality's been consistent through each season with great episodes and a few under par ones mixed in.

What I'm saying is, I still enjoy it as much as when I watched the first episode. Maybe everyone just needs to stop nitpicking and just enjoy the thing or move on.
Right there.
People are digging a bit too deep into it and of course disappointment going to come from that. It may have a mostly adult fanbase but it's still a kid's show and it's simply not going to hold up to that kind of scrutiny.
Personally, I watch the show as it's intended, a kid's show, and I love the show just as much today (if not more) as I did when I watched my first episodes. Sure, there are episodes I disliked, not because of poor character development or plots not holding up, but simply out of personal opinion.
 

Shadow-Phoenix

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I watched season 1+2 and while it was okay the fandom eventually drew me to disliking it all together before S3 aired.

I also don't take kindly to ponies being slapped onto everything seeing as how the shows "were" good before ponies arrived on the scene >.>.