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I voted no, but after looking at these comments, Justice League Unlimited comes to mind, with most of the episodes of the first season being fueled by or contributing to the Cadmus project and ultimately Lex Luthor, with a two-part finale that brought it all together.
What moonlightavenger said. The show already has SoL, and needs more story arcs, but at the same time I love them both. I'd like a balance of the two.
I think a long arc season would be good for the show, but detrimental to the fandom as a whole. Half the reason fan works are so *believable* within the MLP universe is that the show is episodic in nature. By only showing slice-of-life type episodes, it makes epic adventures with the mane 6 much more believable; they just got yanked out of their normal routines. A long story arc, on the other hand, makes it that much harder to suspend disbelief for the fan fiction since it requires that the author change their story all the time to fit the canon. And often, the canon flat-out breaks what were some really solid stories (I mean, Pen Stroke basically REWROTE Past Sins once S2 came out).
Unless you're a fan of AU. Then you just don't give a buck.
Oh, yeah. This is what a poll should look like when a decision is made to go a certain direction with the show in a major way. Not the split votes we saw for other things like Brad and Twilicorn.
It's a terrible idea because what if the story arc wasn't all that great? Then we'd have to suffer a whole season with that said story arc. While it may be good if it was a good story arc, but would you guys really want to risk it?
It's possible to have a big story arc and slice of life episodes. Check Teen Titans.
YES!!!!! FOR GOD SAKE YES!!!!!
They should dedicate an entire season (a whole 26 episodes) to this and make it into an epic, action packed, adventure filled, heart touching, badass for a little girls' cartoon, arc! That would be so awesome!
@NicholasPrime: Great way of thinking. Because indeed there already *is* a sort of long-story arc on personal development of the Mane 6. And I guess that's a pretty promising way to go.
However, a little multi-episode journey theme could be fun :)
@Servant Phoenix
The Crystal Empire episodes weren't my favorite at first but then, somehow, I grew to really like them. I guess I really like the atmosphere of that whole part as no other episodes are like that.
@Liam
If you ask me, the show's episode structure is already quite like Doctor Who. One or two episodes of something serious with a deep plot, episodes in the middle with varying levels of importance(usually of less importance), and then a serious plot-building finale of about two episodes.
Now some of you might be thinking that this would be a great idea. You would be mistaken. For my example I will use season 3 of Star Trek: Enterprise.
A contrived reason to keep the ship far away from Earth is made up; a doomsday weapon comes to Earth and nukes Florida.
The following 22 of 26 episodes do nothing but pad out how stupid the region of space is that the aggressors live in, why we never see them again, and what their motives are. The whole thing could have been wrapped up in about 4-5 episodes.
The problem with long arcs like this is that eventually you run out of shit to do. Which is not to say that I'd be against 2-3 parters more often. Again I'll use Enterprise as an example.
Season 4 was absolutely amazing (except the first 2 episodes) for lore building and exploration of the other races that inhabit the Star Trek universe.
- We got to see the bigotry of humanity failing to keep up with the times.
- We got to understand more about Vulcan "religion" and why the Andorians are such big players in the realm.
- Heck, even the Romulans, and Klingons get 2-3 episode story arcs.
- Dr. Noonien Soong's legacy got a bit of fleshing out as well.
Sadly it wasn't enough to save the series; after 3 sub par seasons there isn't a whole lot that will. But it was a big step in the right direction.
Is this even a question? We have 22 minutes long episodes. That's like... nothing. There is a reason why so many people love Friendship is Magic 1-2, Return of Harmony 1-2, A Canterlot Wedding 1-2. (The Cristal Empire 1-2 might not be as much a favorite, but surely inspired a LOT of fanfictions and other arts. )
Too much like Doctor Who if you ask me (which you did), mlp just doesn't seem to be right for that style
I'm a big fan of anime/manga series with deep stories like 07-Ghost, Pandora Hearts, and Fullmetal Alchemist so I'm going to have to go with a big "yes" on this one.
I guess there is a spectrum of what a "long story arc" means. At one extreme is the Gala arc with 2 episodes leading up to it that could really stand alone. At the other extreme is Lord of the Rings, which looks like a bunch of pointless traveling and fighting if you don't know the context. I don't think they have much interest in the latter end. Would you start watching a show if you started in the middle and couldn't figure out what they were doing or why? I wouldn't. FiM is an outlier. But another show I like is Dan vs. I started watching random episodes and only got the rest after I decided that I liked it. I have no problem with continuity, but I prefer it when one or 2 episodes can stand alone.
Now would be a great time to kick MLP into a full story arc. The first "arc" has just ended with twilight getting her wings.
It's possible to do both the big season-long story arc and the episodic slice of life show, even in kids show format. Beast Wars season 2 is probably the best example I can think of off the top of my head, although, admittedly that's for a slightly older target demographic. Transformers Animated does the same thing too, and probably skews a little bit younger. Oh, and Mystery Inc.'s season 1. This is what I would like to see more of-- A season opener to introduce the season long arc/overall problem, episodic one-shots throughout the rest of the season, with perhaps some continuity moments sprinkled throughout for anyone who is paying attention, but nothing that detracts from the episodic nature of each story, culminating in a two part season finale wrapping up the threads from the entire season. I guess MLP:FIM Season 3 did that a little bit, but I would like to see a little bit more.
I wouldn't say as long as multiple seasons. More like 4 or 5 parts.
"Because it is a kid's show" seems like a weak excuse for denying continuity to me: one of my favorite shows when I was a kid was Disney's Gargoyles... almost the whole thing from ep1 until the end is about progression and continuity as Goliath's gang learns to cope with their new situation in a strange new world.
I really want to see an overarching storyline in MLP which at the same time maintains its current proficiency with the slice of life episodes. I guess I just want more continuity and adventure.
On one hand I think it could work amazingly, on the other hand it just wouldn't be My Little Pony. This is a slice of life show, and as amazing as I think it could be, I just don't see it happening unless there's a major redesign, or some sort of special season like the season 3 of Torchwood.
I don't think it's that likely that they'll have a bunch of episodes in an arc for the simple reason that it doesn't work that well for kids cartoons. They want to be able to put on the episodes whenever there is a time-slot for pony, but a continuing story works better for shows where the audience is going to come and watch it at the same time everyday or once a week (not 6-year-olds). Of course, they only show one new episode per week, but the old ones they show everyday. They are less likely to get spontaneous views of a long arc that doesn't make much sense when they start at the middle.
A long arc may have its pros and cons.
On one side, they can be interesting if done well, and give an adventure-stlye theme to a series.
But making an entire series about one arc may give the series a 'dragged-out' feel; many episodes resorting to filler, and plot elements that come and go. (coughcoughLOSTcough)
However, if we had a season instead of a sereis dedicated to an arc, that would be interesting.
Finally, a decent poll question.
Maybe not a single arc but certainly a few recurring "currents" to introduce elements of progression to the otherwise mostly disjointed slices of life. The closest thing to that in MLP so far are simple continuity nuggets every now and then.
I actually would prefer it if it was a running saga, more adventure and less "Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned..."
I think that a balance between the two would be preferable.
I love long stories, in fact, speaking of long stories, if any of you haven't seen the Phoenix Write My Little Pony crossover series, Turnabout Storm, you need to check it out because the final episode is coming this Friday.
Every multiparter focuses on Twilight. Given that, I say they are to be avoided. The fewer episodes about most boring pony, the better.
As long as it is an epic adventure long story arc. Slice of Life stuff works better with the relatively independent episodes unless they turn it into a soap opera, and I don't want them to do that.
How about a long single arc pony season?