Talk:Slice of Life/@comment-1062502-20150621020159/@comment-5551215-20150624042538

I haven't watched this episode yet (I'm catching up on Season 5, because I started working most saturdays), and I don't think I will hate it, but I can see why you might have misgivings.

Here's my opinion: I think you're just turned off by the hype. I don't care that much about the background ponies, but it's in fandom's nature to take any and all characters and turn them into something with fanworks. This is pretty normal. It's unusual for a professional work to start utilizing the fandom ideas and tropes that it has inspired however.

While I respect this as a potential thank you to the fandom community, I think there is the fear that this could turn into a circle of bad ideas being given purchase to influence the future of the cartoon. It's inevitable that there will be some parallel development of ideas, since the fans are picking up on the plot hooks that the writers haven't dealt with yet. When it comes to things that don't have any previous development outside of the fandom, there is a chance that they'll take whatever is popular, whether it's good or not.

For me, I really don't care for Dr. Hooves being a nod to Dr. Who in the sense that I don't want a Dr. Who crossover in MLP. I like that franchise, but I'm not a fan of professional streams crossing any more than I'm a fan of fandom streams crossing. Too much could go wrong. It's possible to get a good result, but that's not the average quality of such things. So I'm leery of Dr. Hooves gaining too much traction. It's okay when it's light references, but I don't want Dr. Who to be an official part of this world any more than I want Discord to officially be Q. They could make that happen and it might not suck, but the odds are against it being good. :I

On another note, I'm happy to see them exploring some characters who had some minor development, but haven't done much yet. For that reason, I'm happy with the overall premise of Cranky and Mathilda getting married. It's following up on a plot point invoked by characters who had somewhat meaningful interaction before, and whom I already knew and liked. Same for Celestia and Luna being in this episode and pretty much anyone else who has had some personality to go on, even if it was just a smidgeon.

But considering everything as a whole, I'm reminded of two episodes of Adventure Time where the heroes took a backseat: Thank You and Root Beer Guy. I loved how these were stories revolving around completely new characters, showing us a perspective of the Land of Ooo that we've never seen before, and how the heroes are just off doing their thing while ignoring what we're watching. This episode has some of that, but it feels less magical to me when the characters that take center stage aren't created specifically for the story at hand. There's just something amazing about discovering something completely new, which I never knew existed before, and finding out how awesome it is, even when compared to the main characters. These temporary protaganists might not be able to carry their own series, but they are engaging enough to carry an entire episode. The fact that I know their protaganism is so fleeting makes it even more special.

Perhaps other people find it special, in spite of these being known characters (in the sense that any one paying a tiny scosh of attention to the fandom will know about their typical fanon deal.) I don't consider it as engaging from a theoretical perspective, so I'm not jumping at the bit to watch this episode. I'll probably watch it after I've caught up on a few more, even though there isn't any continuity I'd probably miss in watching it right away.

The first episode of season 5 I've watched was Make New Friends but Keep Discord, because I am a huge fan of Discord and I want to see how his friendships are going. I had to see that one as soon as I became aware of its existence. To me, that is the best episode of season 5 so far. I might watch some other episode that could change my mind, but I highly doubt it will be this one. That's not to say I think it's a perfect episode, but it gave me everything I wanted.

Personally, I think the dissatisfication stems from the sort of backlash any really popular thing can get. But for the record, I have a little more of that sensation, because I feel like overly popular fanon can stifle creativity and I wish more people would come up with their own interesting variation on these BG ponies. Considering there is almost no restriction, you'd think they would, but having nothing to go on may be what holds others back. I've certainly never been inspired enough by Derpy as a postal worker, but I can see how it could be interesting. At the same time, there's a lot of jobs she could be interesting in. Friendships like Octavia and DJ PonE has more traction, just based on the Odd Couple feel, but Lyra and Bon Bon have given us very little to go on, so I think it'd be nice to see something new done with them.

That's just my two bits. :)