>>5034
>my overall critical feel for this at this time is that it did nearly everything it had to do as a final, at a possible expense at a better written story.
sounds like a very good summary for it. It was serviceable, entertaining and rewarded the long time fan with references thrown over the course of the episode. It doesn´t reach that perfection nor innovation that one could ask for but one cannot have everything when the legacy of this series is in a critical point to judge in hindsight.

>Hasbro has final say on everything in the show, even if they are somewhat liberal with it they have intervened at various times, sometimes strangely (a recent QnA by big jim (I think) said that Hasbro was the one who said Diamond Tara's story was through, which seems strange). This is not a total defense of the crew conduct or to say that all of their writing mistakes are 100% just Hasbro meddling, but it's a factor that prevents me from blaming simply one person for something that I find questionable at least easily.
that´s a complicated question to deal with. Sure, /mlp/ or part of the fanbase could go really rampant towards Jim but he´s simply a visible face of the crew. One cannot shoot the messenger despite supervising the show and yeah, reading that answer about Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon was certainly surprising. It explains why they were left completely aside after the 5th season all of a sudden yet for some reason, Snails and Snips, while being almost irrelevant in the past, get the green light instead.

Either Hasbro decided that because of marketing reasons and there were other priorities or they were aware of the writing process and said that her arc wouldn´t pan out that well by going deeper into them. I don´t know and one could wait a very long time for getting an answer and the reasons behind this decision.

>even with above in mind, it seems like the last three seasons before Season 9 were setting up each for something long term then have to put it aside for something else.
FiM has managed to be consistent enough for evolving and moving forward but they followed a very fine line that as soon as they moved it a little bit, things could fall apart at any moment or needed more time to be fixed. It´s not only that but it´s a mix of trying to appeal an adult fanbase while placing a new product or two out there. There are a lot of drafts behind this process and gen 4 in reality, considering its confusing nature.....was an undefined series after all. You won´t see this all that often and the only guaranteed thing that you can expect from it are...more pony content. Now with gen 5, they have a clearer way to find a successful method but if Larson had to rewrite MMC back in season 3 for example, let alone the writers with a line that they crossed long ago yet have to find a meaningful new territory as if nothing happened.

So yeah, it´s understandable to believe that the series could have gone through very different paths and even hinted them a bit yet were completely overwritten for what aired next. It´s quite possible that the writers felt as clueless as the fans at some point.