Infamous Episodes: Why are they so infamous?

I didn't actually think the latter was a bad episode.

I understand the former though.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."

Personally, I despise "It's a Wishful Life" because of the accidental aesops.

For "Ponyville Confidential," I actually can't bring myself to hate that episode, because the Crusaders were forgiven for what they did and they got their aesops, Diamond Tiara got her karmic punishment, and the episode had a happy ending and a good aesop about how gossip hurts.

While I do agree that the townsponies was too harsh, fans demonize them and act as though they ran the CMCs out of town or something. I mean, look at it from the townsponies's POV. Wouldn't you be upset if someone published your deepest, darkest secrets and embarrassing stuff you did.? I agree the townsponies were hypocrites, but this just teaches people (and them) to be careful what they wish for.

While Big Mac was harsh to Apple Bloom, I'd be pretty pissed at any of my siblings for posting embarrassing shit about me.

I heard Butch Hartman apologized for that episode, though.

Personally, if I ever write for a kids' show, the first moral I will deliberately put in an episode is that "sometimes hypocrites are right."

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."

I betcha he won't for "Just the Two of Us", because you guys know how he feels about rich/popular kids.

Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great

I still don't think it's an awful episode.

I see no need for him to apologize for that. "It's a Wishful Life" had a pretty bad moral, however.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."

The problem people have with the townsponies being hypocrites is that they were mocking the ponies who appeared on the newspaper, but when they were exposed, they threw a fit. The townponies were right to be upset, but they aren't innocent either.

Also, Hartman apologized? (goes on Google to search)

"Just The Two of Us" was too creepy, because of how Trixie was acting. She scared me.

edited 22nd Mar '14 9:58:20 AM by MsCC93

Have any other show creators apologized for infamous episodes?

I think Quagmire's amazing "The Reason You Suck" Speech was in part an apology for Not All Dogs Go to Heaven.

Well, that was the point. With nobody else around she went crazy.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."

Yeah, it's VERY blatant that the writers were pandering to certain viewers when they suddenly made Quagmire hate Brian out of the blue (they got along just fine before then).

edited 22nd Mar '14 10:43:41 AM by redhed311

I always thought Quagmire took his hatred of Brian to irrational levels sometimes.

I'm fine with 'sometimes hypocrites are right' morals so long as they still point out the fact they are still hypocrites, making it more Jerkass Has a Point than a Designated Hero moment. I just don't like when there are two grey sides and one gets glossed over.

It's generally easier to swallow when the other side still gets Aesops every once in a while, rather than one side always being the one made to learn or accept they're lower than them. I can stand MLP's moments since, while characters have Designated Hero moments, there are still points they are called out for their crap.

No matter what way the writing justifies it, a character who always gets enabled despite often being a total prick isn't going to garner fans.

edited 22nd Mar '14 12:36:52 PM by Psi001

RE: "It's a Wishful Life", I never had that much of a problem with that episode. Part of it is that I interpreted it as none of it actually being real, but just something Jorgen conjured up to test Timmy's character. Basically, presenting him with the question of, "If you had to sacrifice yourself for the good of others, would you?" The way Jorgen acts at the end of the episode seems to indicate that, and I don't know why it's so hard for people to see that.

"Just the Two of Us", though, that one was bleh. I've never before seen such awful Character Derailment. The premise of that one in general was just plain stupid anyway.

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

Well if the episode didn't have any accidental aesops like "Everyone will be better without you," then maybe it wouldn't be hated so much. I dislike the episode, but I do think it would be well received if it was written a different way.

Anyway, I don't hate "If It Smells Like An Ed" from Ed, Edd n Eddy that much anymore. I dislike the ending, but then I realize that the Eds always lose and are always disproportionately punished in every episode, so it's not a big deal to me anymore.

edited 22nd Mar '14 2:46:44 PM by MsCC93

People are treating cartoons like the Bible these days... I think a holy war is due to come any moment now.

Please explain the Character Derailment. I don't quite get it.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."

Thing is, that's not at all what it's saying. That's not an accidental message of it—it's misreading it entirely. It's not saying, "EVERYONE IS DEFINITELY SO MUCH BETTER WITHOUT YOU," but instead asking, "If everyone WAS better off without you, would you be willing to make that sacrifice?" It's never explicitly said that "yes, all of this is definitely true," and it's implied not to be true, especially, as I mentioned, in light of what Jorgen says to Timmy at the end of it.

TL;DR: It's basically asking, "Are you selfish enough to have others suffer in your stead?"

edited 22nd Mar '14 2:50:50 PM by Odd1

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

@Aldo: Plain and simple, earlier on in the series, Trixie was shown to have some hidden depths and to explicitly not be an attention whore, whereas all of that is thrown out the window in that episode.

Granted, her character was pretty ill-defined before then anyway thanks to conflicting writing from season to season...meh, no one watches FoP for good character writing anyway I guess.

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

There's probably a way to reconcile both depictions of the character.

I couldn't tell you how, though.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."

The Simpsons episode Who shoot Mr Burns Part 1 really makes my blood boil with Burns many Karma Houdini moments and his Stupid Evil acts are too much to bear that him getting shoot is not enough.

Not all dreams are meant to come true, otherwise there would be a lot of dead people.

Eh, I gave up on FoP in general a long time ago, so it doesn't really matter too much to me anymore. I pretty much just disregard about half the episodes in season 4 and most of the ones from season 5 onward (including, I suppose, the ones I haven't seen, for reasons of having not seen them and not really having any desire to seek them out). Honestly, I feel like my breaking point with the show was the live-action movie, which might be one of the greatest So Bad, It's Good movies I've ever seen and also one of the hugest "what the hell has happened to this franchise" moments for me. I used to take it all a lot more seriously, but at this point, I figure if the writers are just gonna treat it as a silly cartoon show, why shouldn't I do the same?

EDIT: You know, actually, now that I think about it, an even bigger "what the hell" moment I had with this show was after I'd even stopped watching it, when I read a summary of a later episode in which it is revealed that apparently, Timmy made a secret wish to stop everyone and everything from aging and that this has gone on for 50 years. Reading that literally made my jaw drop and figuratively gave me an aneurysm.

edited 22nd Mar '14 11:27:59 PM by Odd1

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

What a twist!

Insert witty 'n clever quip here.

I want to point out, the one The Fairy Oddparents episode Just the Two of Us was largely hated due to the large Character Derailment that Trixie underwent that became borderline absurd (She tried to kill Timmy in that episode because of a Ass Pull). Trixie was characterized before that Episode as a Rich Bitch with tons of Hidden Depts (In regards to secretly being a tomboy) so I imagine this caught many people offguard especially since it was obvious even to kid demographic that she was trying to kill him.

edited 23rd Mar '14 1:36:34 AM by Bleddyn

0dd1, post 44: I have a theory that the seasons 4 and 5 of that show take place after the first 3 seasons.

I actually like the first 5 seasons of that show despite the Flanderization in the last one. (It's one of those shows that went downhill in the minds of many despite most of the original writers still being on board. How does that happen?)

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."

I haven't seen the episode myself so I likely get some details wrong, but I think there was an episode guest starring Glenn Beck where Brian manages to turn the entire town into liberals. Glenn Beck then manages to convert Brian into a conservative, and succeeds to the point where Brian starts thinking that Glenn Beck himself is too mainstream. The Snap Back begins when someone points out that he likely just became a conservative because they were the new minority group.

edited 23rd Mar '14 5:18:03 AM by Druplesnubb

It was Rush Limbaugh, but you're right.

"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."