Talk:The Washouts/@comment-26423071-20180819002541/@comment-27578467-20180819020609

I think the term 'fault' is misused here, since an individual's reaction isn't a "problem" per se. I haven't seen this episode, but generally speaking the more you reference external material the more of a liability you create, since you're essentially betting on the audience having a specific experience to make sense of the current material. It all depends on how the writing uses the referenced content; for example, when Sapphire Shores is mentioned again in For Whom The Sweetie Belle Toils, the story made perfect sense without knowing anything about A Dog and Pony Show because nothing relied on that episode. But not having seen the season five opener, you'd probably be confused about several of Starlight's lines and probably entire episodes in seasons six and seven. I wouldn't call that a fault - it may be (and as far as I can tell certainly is) intentional, as it can make those that do understand feel like they're in an exclusive group, which is often a good feeling - but the risk of a blank stare reaction is always there.