Faust's Vision · 6:18am Jan 5th, 2014
Not gonna lie, this blog post was inspired by reading lines about "Faust's vision" one time too many. For example, this one from a forum post:
The misanthropes (namely you-know-who) will simply disregard the episodes where ponies act like jerks simply because Lauren Faust didn't write them. Therefore, in their warped mind, they're not part of "Faust's Vision", and therefore not canon..
(Note: the above was not directed at me, in fact I have at this time not even posted in the thread it came from. I'm just citing it as an example)
I can't speak for anyone but myself, but... I, personally, don't give two rats tails about what Lauren Faust intended, and how closely the series follows her "vision." When I watch MLP, my reaction is based on my preferences, not Faust's.
Not everyone who prefers the 1st season worships the ground Lauren Faust walks on, people -__-.
To be honest, when it comes to television and film, I don't see the point of creator-worship. It's one thing if its a book or a manga, which has one clear, obvious creator who is the primary conduit for the story, but film and television are collaborative mediums. Gene Roddenberry didn't really "create" Star Trek, except insofar as he came up with the premise and maybe wrote the pilot script and series bible--most of what we love most about the show was created either by other writers or--more particularly--by the people nobody ever thinks about: the costume designers, the behind-the-scenes guys, the network executives, and sometimes even reality itself. Case in point, "Transporters" were invented purely as a budget-saving measure so they wouldn't have to film the Enterprise taking off and landing on different planets (which would be expensive, apparently). I could also point out that George Lucas really didn't have as much involvement in Star Wars as he claims to--in fact, the whole concept of The Force, a major part of Star Wars' mythology, was added by one of the assistant directors.
Getting back to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the thing is while we probably do owe Faust some respect and some gratitude, if nothing else for making MLP a thing in the first place, it's really not as cut-and-dried as "Faust's ideas were good, everyone else's was bad." After all, Faust personally approved every single Season 2 script, which means she let episodes like "A Friend in Deed" and "The Mysterious Mare-do-Well" slip by. To be fair, she could've seen an early version of those scripts and maybe it was a revision that ruined them.
But here's some ideas of Faust's own that were clearly not the best:
1. She wanted FIM to be a magical girl/Sailor Moon-esque series.
2. You know how Pinkie is an annoying Looney Tunes-like character in modern episodes? Well, that was Faust's original concept in the first place.
3. She originally intended for Twilight to be Celestia's "successor." I'm not sure what that means but I can't interpret that in any way that's not more stupid than Twilicorn.
So, bottom line.
Please people, QUIT acting like everyone who dislikes the show's direction are "adhering to Faust's vision." It just makes you look like wankers who need to pull out a strawman to have any point at all.
That is all, good day.
Its a sad thing NGR but Faustfag is apparently a word. I should know because I've just been called one on another discussion board.
Apparently a faustfag is worthy of shame and derision... wow. I wonder how people would feel if we replaced it with the word Jew. Hmmm.
Something rotten in the heart of denmark.
Anyway the points presented here were quite useful in sticking it to the person involved.
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And Hamlet is takin' out the trash!
I counter you cons with these:
1: the Magic girl thing can make the actually Elements more revelent.
2: Just because a character is comic relief doesn't mean they're just that.
3: Twicorn was too soon and the episode was rushed.
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I counter your counter with these:
1) Personally I don't feel like MLP would've worked as a magical girl series. The heroines just don't have superhero-like personalities, they're too much like normal girls, and that would make them heroes in the wrong genre.
2) True, but the writers of this series have demonstrated that once they pigeonhole a character, they're unwilling to expand beyond that hole.
3) Twilicorn would never have worked even if they waited ten seasons, not unless Twilight had a) actually made it her goal to become a Princess b) started training for that very purpose and c) she and the writers were both willing to deal with the weight and responsibilities that come with princesshood.
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So what you saying is the writers that suck.
1819260 Pretty much.