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Description
Poor Crusaders. We all thought they had promising futures ahead of them but instead they get to be youth counsellors. Good luck with that.
Edit:
The point I was trying to make with the comic is, “Being led to expect one thing for five years, only to be presented with something completely different, seemingly out of nowhere, kinda feels like being trolled.” If the writers had meant to troll us, that would be one thing but they did not. They intended to grow the CMC as characters and introduce a new direction for their destinies, and at this they failed. This is not a good thing.
To clarify my position: when the writers decided to take the CMC in a new direction, they did a poor job of introducing this change. Having only one single episode of foreshadowing, continuing to reinforce the old direction right up until episode 4, and using cutie mark designs that appear to be aimed at their old destinies, all combine to make it look like a sudden plot twist out of nowhere. When the writers try to introduce character growth but instead end up unintentionally producing an unexpected plot twist, something went wrong, and that fact is not changed by whether or not you like the new direction, or appreciate the design of the marks, or enjoy surprising plot twists.
Neither bringing up the fact that the cutie marks still symbolise their originally intended talents, nor pointing out that they can still exercise those despite their new destiny, address this criticism of poorly executed storytelling mechanics.
Edit:
The point I was trying to make with the comic is, “Being led to expect one thing for five years, only to be presented with something completely different, seemingly out of nowhere, kinda feels like being trolled.” If the writers had meant to troll us, that would be one thing but they did not. They intended to grow the CMC as characters and introduce a new direction for their destinies, and at this they failed. This is not a good thing.
To clarify my position: when the writers decided to take the CMC in a new direction, they did a poor job of introducing this change. Having only one single episode of foreshadowing, continuing to reinforce the old direction right up until episode 4, and using cutie mark designs that appear to be aimed at their old destinies, all combine to make it look like a sudden plot twist out of nowhere. When the writers try to introduce character growth but instead end up unintentionally producing an unexpected plot twist, something went wrong, and that fact is not changed by whether or not you like the new direction, or appreciate the design of the marks, or enjoy surprising plot twists.
Neither bringing up the fact that the cutie marks still symbolise their originally intended talents, nor pointing out that they can still exercise those despite their new destiny, address this criticism of poorly executed storytelling mechanics.
Please link to image pages like this:
>>998910 (deleted)
Using “full” links like those across domains loses your login cookie, i.e being logged into to derpibooru.org is not the same as being logged in to derpiboo.ru
…That statistic seriously bucked me up for a minute there.
I throw in the towel.
Fights to the death are always fun. I warn you though, I have a 90% win rate so far.
Alright, fine, people like the episode, sheesh. Good for you. And people who didn’t like it, didn’t like it. Have fun.
The point was that the situation with the cutie marks could have been handled better. If you think it was handled well, or if you don’t, there’s only one way to resolve it.
A fight to the death.
In the comments.
By which I mean logical point and counterpoint.
That’s perfectly valid. I can see the episode was designed to tug at your heartstrings by making your happy about CMC being happy. I just think the inherent… inexplicability… of the entire affair and the stiff otherwordly reaction to the situation cheapens it to a null point. That’s because it has problems I find hard to ignore. If you do ignore those problems then, yes, you’ll be happy about the episode.
I don’t think it’s incredible these problems weren’t an obstacle to most people, but they were for me, so I’d prefer it if it were done better.
Though maybe the bigger problem is that I feel little to no investment in the show after the previous bad episodes. This will be one for that pile, if not in entirety, then for the aspect of stuffing CMC’s possible character development into cryostasis.
I’ve been to many parts of the fandom, both where people love the show, where people people have more mixed feelings, and where people seem fo dislike most if the shos. No matter where I go (other than /mlp/, where large swathes of the posters seem to hate every new episode, and it’s impossible to tell how many actually feel about anything), the people that love or like it far outnumber those that dislike it. It’s not a factor of me only frequenting places where everyone loves the show all the time.
I can name several. It gives the three talents that will probably put all of their experience with tons of different things to good use, the thematic nature of them continuing crusading (albeit with a different focus) even after they get their marks is great, their current cutie marks are a lot more unique in purpose than what they were hinted to be in Show Stoppers, they way they got their marks simultanously emphasizes their unbreakable bond, and the song and interaction with their families and the picture were touching.
Nothing ever makes everyone happy, especially in entertainment.
Sure, why not. I wasn’t saying you were wrong. I was saying your argument is really ridiculous when you take a step back to look at it. Either way, it’s irrelevant to what happened: the issue isn’t whether they went with established arcs or subverted them, it’s that they’ve done the latter quite poorly.
And, of course, the fans who hated it will have the exact same experience, but in reverse. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
Personally, I don’t understand why anyone would be happy about it. No logical reason I can think of.
If people like it, good for them. I’d prefer something that would make everyone happy.
Just look at the dozens upon dozens of people who were extremely excited, proud, crying in joy, and just overall happy at the cutie marks:
https://derpiboo.ru/998910
This is the norm in most places, not the exception.
It was made extremely obvious that they had talents in said fields. It was never made extremely obvious that said talents were their SPECIAL talents. In addition, red herrings are always something to keep in mind. While I had no idea what their cutie marks were going to be, I have always believed that it was unlikely that they were going to get the ones showed in Show Stoppers, for narrative reasons.
Yes, I noticed that there were some vocal people who disliked the event (mostly on this site and of course, on /mlp/), but I have talked to or seen an order of magnitude more adults on this site, on youtube, in real life, and on a half dozen other message boards that all absolutely loved it, and many, many more that thought it was good. There are tons of people that called Crusaders of the Lost Mark their favorite episode in the entire seasons, and many more than that rate it among the best in the season.
True. It was merely extremely obvious. Are you sure you want to make that argument?..
Yes. If you’re the worst writer in the world, you’ll still find someone who enjoys your work for one reason or another.
But personal taste being subjective is no excuse to serve burnt tires at a fancy restaurant and expecting no critique for it.
The mark of a good writer is to make this enjoyment consistent and a majority among your audience. Basic logic is their aid to that goal. That’s why we can pick apart and discuss what makes a work or at enjoyable or not regardless of how subjective it is.
In fact, if you’re not a fanatic, it should be easy to discuss the problems inherent in the things you enjoy.
I didn’t start watching MLP because it was a perfect show. I did so because its strengths outstripped its weaknesses, and I can understand if, to someone else, it would be the other way around. It’s fine.
Then our experience is very different. You might also have noticed how many people were upset by the development? But, of course, you wouldn’t necessarily talk to them…
True. That wouldn’t be a good thing to do either.
No one, in show or out, EVER said that the talents they showed in the Show Stoppers were their special talents, and it’s not the show’s fault that you assumed that they were. That’s not even counting the fact that their implied talents changed throughout the show (Applebloom went from construction to potion making, Scootaloo went from performing to stunts).
In addition, it being “not satisfying”, or having “no emotional payoff” is extremely subjective; the majority of fans that I talk to absolutely loved how they got their cutie marks, and some actually cried during it.
What satisfaction or emotional payoff would there be if they got their Show Stopper talents as cutie marks, and they basically went “oh, we wasted four seasons of searching since we already should have known what they were”? I certainly can’t see any.
I don’t think they built up anything. CMC’s talents were established in the same episode they were introduced, there wasn’t any big mystery of higher purpose to it then. People expected them to eventually (or never, depending on the writer’s laziness) find these talents, which is a perfectly logical conclusion. Very simple.
So this whole thing is a giant curveball out of nowhere.
Curveballs aren’t a big thing, of course, it’s just that they have to be done well. This one wasn’t satisfying at all. There was neither any entertainment value, nor anything to think about, nor any emotional payoff.
The writers basically put a previously established premise into the trash bin… for what?
I am unsure as to why any fans built up an expectation for a great purpose or lesson towards the CMC’s shenanigans. The show has never shown them to be more than a group of friends trying to light-heartedly find their cutie marks. Regardless of whether the writers went with this path, or had them get individual, normal cutie marks, it wouldn’t have been some earth-shattering event.
Personally, I believe it works out far better this way, since not only did they get their cutie marks together, highlighting the fact that they’ll be close friends forever, but they also earned them once they finally stopped worrying about them, which is what ponies have been trying to tell them since season 1.
To have three children having lots of fun as friends getting into shenanigans.
That you sometimes do better at something once you stop hyperfocusing on it.
Yes.
This was the plan.
Right here.
Right here.
They help other ponies with their cutie marks.
Everything.
Yes.
What was the point of CMC? What lessons were we supposed to learn from them? Was there some emotional payoff? What was the plan? Where did it go? Where did it lead? What happens to them now? What’s even interesting about any of their shenanigans? Was there a point to any of this?
“Whatever, we’ll figure it out five seasons later.”
Yeah, like Pagan said, we were all pretty much done with the blank-flank shtick, but the way they ended it wasn’t satisfying at all.
Actually OP stated he wanted them to get their cutie marks everyone agrees they should have gotten them some people are just not happy with what they got or the fact the change in cutie marks was not foreshadowed.
I for one have no problem with this, It explains why they haven’t gotten their cutie marks despite seemingly exercising their fundamental talents.
As a matter of fact I, like many others were getting pretty tired of watching the CMC fail to get their cutie marks, how much longer should the writers have dragged it out before you’d be happy with it?
To put it another way, lets look at Diamond Tiara. She got her cutie mark off screen and it was no big deal for her; which implies a cutie mark is something you suddenly just get when you finally figure out what you’re meant to do.
Then we don’t NEED a huge amount of episodes to set this up, do we? There is such a thing as brevity in writing.
I mean how much longer could it really have dragged on for?
Well, that one is fine and all, but I didn’t really have a problem with this version either. I think most criticisms of the show are met with negativity from the fandom, even if they are meritorious.
What do you think? Does this work better to get across what I actually meant?
I honestly didn’t expect such a huge - and sometimes rather emotional - response to what I intended to be a harmless little joke, comparing the abrupt switch of direction to being “trolled” on the internet.
However, the discussion was for the most part quite civil, and helped me refine both my analysis of what went wrong and how to articulate it. Plus it made my own error in the creation of the comic abundantly clear. I really could have done without the endless repetition of the same comment over and over again, written by people who clearly hadn’t read the discussion, but felt the need to contribute anyway.
sorry your sensitive but oversensitivity isn’t an excuse for willful ignorance.