So I decided to rewatch all of MLP from the beginning · 5:09pm Aug 25th, 2017
We only got about four episodes into season one and we realized that they kinda suck. It's also interesting to see the complete tonal shift in writing as the series went on. It's obvious that in the beginning, the writers didn't think that they would have to write something with an adult audience in mind. Oh the 2011-2012 memes became 20% cooler again in ten seconds flat. It is not, by any means, the worst possible thing. Yay!~
That last bit just gave me a bit of a migrane.
AFAIK the original 'adult' intention was purely to make a show that wouldn't make parents - forced to watch toy shilling cartoon programming with their kids - die of boredom and self-inflicted brain trauma from how completely banal girls cartoons tended to be.
Consequently, MLP: FIM turned out to genuinely be the best cartoon out at the time, though the infamous "End of Creator Driven Animation" article and 4-chan watching the show for the ironic lulz and stuff. The Hub having a strong starting lineup that some were hailing as a revisit to the 90's glory days of Cartoon Network when the channel itself had personality between the cartoons also helped.