Yes, you are

WINGS!  

The worst things happen in canterlot

@Millennial Dan
 
I already made a deviantart journal explaining my thoughts on this so go here and feel free to comment (after thinking it over please): http://matt0044.deviantart.com/journal/In-Defense-of-A-Canterlot-Wedding-Part-2-360382581

@matt0044  
You give Hasbro far too much credit. They run this parade, and they get what they want. They don’t need to go around meekly, timidly requesting that this or that be made to happen.
 
They wanted a royal wedding episode, and they were going to have it. They may also have wanted both the newlyweds to have some prior relationship established with Twilight too, but that’s merely my speculation.
 
Regardless, the fact is that those episodes, however much I may have liked some of them, still have the stink of contrivance all over them.

@Millennial Dan  
I don’t think anyone from Hasbro wrote the episodes outside of making the toy which was the basis and telling the gang at DHX “Hey, could you put this into the show any way possible? Kthxbye.”

Shining armour you scumbag That’s your wife your taking rage on D:<

@matt0044  
Ponies mimic human society, don’t bring horses into this.

I have a few things to say about certain “neigh-sayers…”
 
Part 1: http://matt0044.deviantart.com/journal/In-Defense-of-A-Canterlot-Wedding-Part-1-349179048
 
Part 2: http://matt0044.deviantart.com/journal/In-Defense-of-A-Canterlot-Wedding-Part-2-360382581
 
Part 3: http://matt0044.deviantart.com/journal/In-Defense-of-A-Canterlot-Wedding-Part-3-362084371
 
Part 4: http://matt0044.deviantart.com/journal/In-Defense-of-A-Canterlot-Wedding-Part-4-update-363859840

@Background Pony  
Well, I read how it might relate to how in herds of horses, the female mare is usually calling the shots. Going by Celestia and Luna, Equestria’s mostly a matriarch with a slight bias towards females.
 
That and this is “My Little Pony” we’re talking about.

@Background Pony  
Cuz the show is mostly about chicks.

@matt0044  
What about Shining Armor and Blueblood? How come prince-hood doesn’t come with the same perks?

Cadence being an Alicorn princess makes sense in a way: when you’re royalty and have power over Pegasi, Earth and Unicorn, being an alicorn gives the image that you represent all three races with little bias.
 
Well… that’s my half-baked interpretation.

@Millennial Dan
 
I completely agree, having worked on both sides of the creation process.

@Ebalosus  
I agree, the colors they eventually settled on are much better than what they’ve indicated they might have gone with originally.
 
My point (which is to everyone in general who thinks executive meddling can be a good thing) is merely this: few of us would argue that their advice for ways in which the show could be improved is a bad thing. However, when the execs try to write the story from the top, I see that as needlessly problematic. MMC is my primary reference for this perspective, but the other two depicted in the image above definitely could’ve used work as well.
 
So to sum up, suits can help make the details of the show better sometimes, but they shouldn’t try to write episode premises.

@Millennial Dan
 
How so? (sincere question)
 
My point was that I found the original designs for the G4 main characters hard on the eyes (IMPO, of course)

@Ebalosus  
You know, sometimes I really think we should distinguish between helpful feedback, and outright marching orders.

@Trickquestion
 
I agree with you regarding ACW, since pretty much everyone is carrying an idiot ball (Twilight is too, just a much smaller one). SH bothered me a lot more on theory than in execution, though I will agree that some foreshadowing was necessary, since I usually don’t like it when new narrative elements fall into a story with no rhyme or reason (looking at you, Crucible and Catalyst from Mass Effect 3). Cadance being an alicorn didn’t bother me in the slightest, since (as I’ve said many times before) the show has never bothered to tell us what an alicorn is, or what that entails.
 
CE was arguably better than ACW IMHO, since it had better pacing. ACW had pretty good pacing up to the point where notCadance banishes Twilight, but after than, the story seemed to change gears in order to resolve the conflict, like the first two episodes, leaving it with an uneven pace. Good pacing means that I shouldn’t notice the passage of time when engrossed in a story. This is why I think that CE is superior in regards to ACW, in that it has a natural pace to the story, and that the characters aren’t carrying idiot balls in order for the plot to work.
 
MMC, to me, comes across as an abridged musical episode of what would normally be a two or three parter. I admire the makers for what they did, and arguably achieved, but dear god was that episode overflowing with underdeveloped story ideas… which lead me to my conclusion:
 
I think a majority of the shows problems can be choked up to the medium of the show: It’s a tv show, it has to be 22, or 44 minutes long, which means either padding, or stuff being cut. ACW, CE, and especially MMC would have worked much better as three-parters, thus:
 
part 1: Exposition  
part 2: Buildup and rising action  
part 3: Peak, falling action, and denouement.

-ACW  
Cadance was a Mary Sue and Shining Armor an ill-defined retcon, yet the episode still works. 7/10  
-TCE  
A few rather serious storytelling flaws weaken an otherwise fine episode. 6/10  
-MMC  
First 17 minutes are fun, if rushed; the coronation, though, is crash and burn (except for Twilight’s speech). 5.5/10

Canterlot Wedding got carried on the backs of Chrysalis and her Changlings, but still managed to be a good episode regardless. Idiot plots bother me less when the stupidity is spread around the cast instead of one specific troublemaker, and seeing how everyone in that episode made mistakes, I still enjoyed it. I do agree with bboifatz though that Shining could have used some foreshadowing.
 
Crystal Empire had an awesome premise but a terribly flawed execution. Way too much time is wasted on everypony’s silly antics, and Twilight is completely unlikable for the entire episode, and there was nothing entertaining about Sombra.
 
Magical Mystery Cure was a half baked mess of poor pacing and plot holes. I have absolutely nothing against Twilicorn, and I even respect the writers for being willing to alter the status quo so much and advancing a story arc, but by Celestia was that episode poorly put together.

-ACW  
Pretty good, the twist made it better.  
-TCE  
Not spectacular, could’ve done better.  
-MMC  
I didn’t like it.

To be honest, I was never bothered by Cadance being an alicorn. (Nor Twi’ly becoming one either.)

@Background Pony  
I liked ACW but I recognize it wasn’t perfect– there was no reason for Cadance to be an alicorn, and Shining Armor should have been introduced or alluded to in an earlier episode. Even though his introduction song was good, it still felt clumsy because we should have known about him sooner, especially since all of the characters apparently knew about him already. Adding him the way they did practically felt like a retcon.

To be perfectly honest, I felt that “A Canterlot Wedding” was clumsily executed, “The Crystal Empire” was rushed and focused more on the Crystal Fair than the actual plot, and as for “Magical Mystery Cure” . . . to put it lightly, I didn’t like it . . . at all.