Help! My Heart is Full of Pony! - The Show is Reborn, Pt, 2 · 7:09am Sep 9th, 2020
Looking back on Season 4, it's easy to define it by keys and trees, since that is the long arc storyline of the season after all. It's easy to define it by Twilight's growth, or by world building choices. However, there were some rather subtle but consistent evolutions in their storytelling style that also took shape in this time period - ones that would grow to characterize the entire second half of the series.
Season 3 had made some very abrupt and drastic changes (reformation of Discord, Alicorn Twilight), and the future success of the show hinged on their follow up to that. I've already written about how amazing a job the Season 4 premiere did at that very task, but the episodes that come after it also adhere to a particular pattern.
They all look to build the show's future by honoring the show's past. Until this point, the show had still been fairly new - too new to really wax nostalgic about itself.
The premiere, however, covered a great deal of previously underdeveloped ground. We got to actually see cataclysmic, world-changing historical events that had, until that point, only been described briefly, but never actually depicted. This episode went back and showed us the battle between Celestia and Nightmare Moon; it showed us the battle between the princesses and Discord. It showed us what the Elements of Harmony used to look like, and what function that weird fountain-looking thing in the pilot actually had.
Castlemania, the episode immediately after that, built on the Castle of the Two Sisters - a location vitally important to Equestrian history and lore, but never even mentioned outside of the pilot. Daring Don't took a much beloved one-shot concept from Read it and Weep and developed it into a piece of the actual My Little Pony universe. Flight to the Finish finally finally finally finally finally addressed the fact that Scootaloo couldn't fly.
These may seem like obvious developments, but if you look at early seasons, apart from Cutie Mark Chronicles' use of the sonic rainboom, the return of Princess Luna in Luna Eclipsed, and a few references to Starswirl the Bearded, there are no callbacks whatsoever. (All the aforementioned episodes were written by MA Larson, by the way; let that sink in).
When Season 4 came out, the show was changing, and growing further from its original vision. They started anchoring episodes in early lore, and expanding undeveloped ideas from earlier seasons, and that philosophy - that self-awareness - is what grounded the series for years to come.
Now obviously, not every episode does this. In fact, a lot of Season 4 episodes are characterized by completely new experiments - quirky high concept episodes like Power Ponies and Bats. However, my point isn't that Season 4 evolved on nostalgia alone, but rather, that bold new ideas like these would have felt wildly out of place if the creative team hadn't made a conscious decision to anchor the show in its own roots.
People are kind of like that too. Most folks spend their entire adult life either running away from, or running toward their childhoods. (Usually a mixture of both). I would argue that that is how we all grow - moving forward by looking back.
Discuss.
-Sprocket
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"great deal of previously underdeveloped ground cataclysmic events that"
Is there some missing punctuation, or something, in there?
"and what function that weird fountain-looking thing in the pilot actually was."
"and what the function of that weird fountain-looking thing in the pilot actually was."?
Also, I find I don't remember that bit (It's a bit of a strange feeling, thinking of just how long ago that was.); what was it?
"All the aforementioned episodes were written by MA Larson, by the way; let that sink in"
Well, a certain oft-used phrase expressing gratitude to him comes to mind... :)
Thank you as usual for your perspective and commentary. :)
It's one thing to nostalgic Ali look back at the beginnings, it's mind-blowing to think back at such a seminal steps setting the foundation for something huge. Or rather, several somethings.