@Background Pony #6C14  
Oh, I know there’s sincerity behind the sentiment. I’m just asking that there be rationality as well. A tall order, I know, but maybe if I hold up a big enough mirror to this kind of thought process, someone will look at it.
 
Maybe.

@FanOfMostEverything  
Keep in mind that, if someone doesn’t like something, they generally dislike it for a reason. Complainers aren’t pretending to believe what they say or setting arbitrary goals just because they feel like insulting it for some undefined reason (which is easy to write off as “no reason”).

@Background Pony #DDD9  
you’re gonna break the goalposts if you keep moving them, bp.

@Background Pony #DDD9  
I’m just saying, a condition as nebulous as “start putting some actual fucking effort into the show again” can be constantly redefined by an unpleasable fanbase. When did they stop putting effort in? What would be an indicator should they resume? What of episodes prior to the cutoff point that lack evidence of effort? What of those that posses the aforementioned indicator, yet aren’t all that good? What, in short, is effort, and how can it be definitively determined in a given episode?
 
With so many variables left vague at best, it’s a no-win situation. The next episode could be the animated equivalent of the Holy Grail, but if the the above questions are left unanswered, a stubborn critic could dismiss it as “without effort” without any need to support the claim.
 
tl;dr: Define your goddamn terms and support your fucking thesis, you insufferable, fun-loathing neckbeard.  
And have a nice day.

@Background Pony #DDD9  
Well it’s better then having unreasonably high standards that could never be met even partially

@FanOfMostEverything
 
Yes, I’m sure any set of standards would appear unreasonable to someone who happily laps up whatever the staff hands them as a matter of course.

@igotnopicks
 

@Background Pony #DDD9  
Of course, the problem there is that those conditions are defined by fans who are so up their own hamster-holes that they’ve become Habitrail Ouroboroses

*not putting effort

@Background Pony #DDD9  
>implying they are not effort into the show

When the staff pull their heads out of their hamster-holes and start putting some actual fucking effort into the show again.
 
So, basically, never.

@Background Pony #E3A2  
Well then, which organ will you accept her in?

NEVER! I will never accept alicorn Twilight into my heart! It was poorly written!

You knew what you were getting into, Daring. All those ancient temples to forgotten gods? The first fandoms.

Never. Not even when Hell freezes over.

Not my fault you were in the weakest episode of S4 so far, Ms. Do.

NEVER!