Fluttershy you have one job!!!!!!!!!

@Zharkaer  
Oh.. XD

@Sumi _mlp 1213  
There’s a picture of Soarin’ with hearts on her dresser.

Why is it implied soarindash? :o

@Animegx43  
How do you know she lied?

tortoises are some of the most long lived animals on earth…

OMG LOL!!!!
 
 
@Background Pony #D73C
 
…maybe?
 
 
well, I laugh and I’m not…wait…
 
forget it…

This made me laugh. Does that mean I’m a bad person.

@Whiteeyes  
Its hard to tell if the ‘isn’t just’ part is her saying it was about death as well, or she was only aiming to make an episode for grief of any kind. (shrug)
 
I could be either way, I don’t think it makes much difference. They knew a few fans were going to think about the death motif eventually.

@Background Pony #956B  
…Yes Background Pony, I will forever miss your respect…???
 
I never insulted the people who enjoyed it, if that’s there kind of thing, that’s fine with me.
 
It just isn’t exactly how they’ve done MLP up till now, dumbing the main characters down to this degree. They’ve done it a few times, but this was far worse then Mare-do-Well. The episode had this weird obsession that Tank going to hibernate was going to make RD as stupid and obsessed as possible, and they never really explained why. Not seeing a friend around for a few months simply isn’t grief inducing or traumatic, and even if they di. Did the writer forget that Dash has 5 other friends and Scoots?
 
These are writing fundamentals. If the episode wasn’t even secretly about dealing with death, then all’s left is the normal grief angle that left a lot of people’s head scratching. A lot, NOT all. But the problem is you don’t WANT a lot of people scratching their head. Why would you? If they wanted to have the issue be small like pet hibernation, why not use one of the CMC? Kids get more upset over smaller things.
 
Writers always have constraints, and considering Hasbro, they’re likely are. I sincerely doubt this was entirely her fault. Although sometimes I think the main goal was they wanted RD to pull off the Grinch face, which was hilarious.

@CronoM  
Nice job insulting both the writer and the fans of the episode. And just when I was starting to regain respect for you.

@Prof.NightJack  
@Background Pony #956B
 
Yeah, the “isn’t just” part really does imply it was a kid friendly substitute. I never claimed that they seriously planned to kill tank, they just used it as a metaphore.

@Background Pony #956B  
Nah, hearing what we expected but were worried to here, that mixed reasoning, neutral response, only proves one thing.
 
Ineptitude.
 
Someone who had a strong idea of writing a denial story was either dealt or came up with the inane concept of the character being Rainbow Dash and the subject being Tank hibernating, and bringing the drama to the extreme. To say the least, it was idiotic beyond belief.
 
(sigh) Fanfic writers could do better then this, no exaggeration.
 
Yes, Cindy, kids relate to loss and grief too, but an appropriate event has to be able to create those things in the first place! How does a professional writer forget something unbelievably simple?
 
Instead of understanding this, Cindy just wrote the denial and grief plot AROUND the ‘Tank-is-going-into-hibernation’ concept, instead of delivering a concept that works WITH the plot. If you create a concept that works with a plot, you don’t have to lobotomize the involved characters(RD then pretty much everyone by the end of the episode)
 
Plus, unless Meghan asked you to regress the characters as much as possible, wouldn’t this plot of been one put before episodes like Flight to the Finish, and Games Ponies Play? You don’t want to create scenario’s where PAST versions of themselves would shake their heads at how underdeveloped or immature they acted in the freakin’ future. EVER. And of course, this was stretching things even for season 1.
 
How did this script get greenlighted?

@Prof.NightJack  
I found this from the episode’s writer, Cindy Morrow: ‘FYI Tank was never meant to die & the story outlines the stages of grief. Kids relate to loss as much as adults. Isn’t just about death.’ Which, of course, both sides of this “debate” will claim debunks the other side…

@Whiteeyes  
Without a link to it, never take someones word for it.  
As far as I have seen no one on the shows staff has said it was about death.

@Prof.NightJack  
I don’t have the link, somebody on a forum said they read it.

@Whiteeyes  
“Look, one of the writers outright admitted it on twitter.”  
Source please.

@biznizz  
Look, one of the writers outright admitted it on twitter. And seriously, this show is all about happy endings, you can’t have a pet die and come back because that undermines the message, and you can’t just have the pet die because that’s too sad. It’s official policy for happy endings.

Pannel 4 as a reaction image….
 
And for some reason, I keep reading this like it’s a British comedy sketch, such as from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

@Background Pony #58B2  
My point is that I want to give the show some credit. If the episode was really about Tank dying, then they would have done it.
 
Show’s shown death before (the Mr. Waddle pic). >>10999

@Background Pony #58B2  
Or maybe they where not trying to make it about dealing with death, maybe it’s far more simple then what you think.

@biznizz
 
And some Courage episodes are TV-12 - for example the Mask episode (about those lesbian cat and bunny).
 
I also don’t know what is your point. No one said it’s impossible to show death. MLP team or Hasbro just didn’t want to do it directly, it’s as simple as that.

@Background Pony #58B2  
Courage actually has a TV-Y7 rating, according to IMDB.
 
Is it so hard to think that if the showrunners wanted death in the show, they’d actually use it? Aside from the aformentioned Sombra is dead thing, even the original Tirek was killed, disintergrated by the Rainbow of Light in the original MLP special. Not reformed like Scorpan or Spike, not hiding in the shadows, he was f-cking dead.
 
Also, here’s that dealing with a dead pet episode from Rugrats.
 
You can easily deal with mature concepts in TV-Y shows. The famous dealing with the death of Mr. Hooper from Seasame Street, the death of Abe on Bobby’s World for example. Hell, even a show like Hey Arnold (which is admittedly Y7) got away with depicting the Pataki’s as a severely dysfunctional family while barely hiding the fact that Miriam was an alcoholic.

@biznizz  

 
Courage has mixed G/PG rating (Depends on episode). Dexter isn’t Y-rated as well.

@Bronitarian  

 
TORTOISE