On a Plurality of Equestrias · 10:41am Mar 18th, 2012
So this last episode has brought to the fore something which has been rattling around inside my head (and others') for a while, and that is show integrity.
I'm using that word more in the "continuity" vein, however, not as a slur. I look at it like this: MLP:FIM is a show conceived for little girls that also their brothers and parents wouldn't mind watching. At that, they have succeeded without a doubt.
The thing is, as they have been producing this cartoon, for better or worse, the world around the characters has changed. In season 1, we had a relatively straight-played medieval setting (albeit with 'Manehatten' and 'Cloudsdale' as anachronistic oddities) full of magic and spellcrafting. The lessons were the same format, though mostly featured around Twilight Sparkle (unsurprisingly, she is our avatar in the show). We were taught that friendship is magic, and magic is everywhere and everything.
That changed for season 2 - not so for the two-parter that started it, but then it was actually created as a part of season 1 that didn't air until season 2 began. Season 2 has been much more about the slice of life. The magic aspect of their friendship has been very much downplayed - you can see where the original writing team's inspiration lives on in episodes like 'the cutiepox' and 'hearts and hooves', even 'lesson zero', but especially in 'nightmare night'. To contrast that, we've also had some wonderful additions (the flim flam brothers' magimechanical marvel, tanks flying contraption),
In short, season 2 is much more of a gag season, and continuity and integrity take a backseat. The author of yesterday's show (Merriweather) enjoys herself and tells a wonderful story, but it does play merry hell with the world. She has created (not only her, I hasten to add) a world that essentially looks like ours, only magical. She's turned it from "Friendship is Magic" into "Tiny Toon Ponies".
Is that a bad thing? Well... objectively, it's hard to say. As far as a consistent tone and message for the target age-group, I can't tell if they'll understand the changes are meaningful. On the one hoof, it's a fun show with plenty to laugh at, amazing voice and animation work and worthwhile storylines. Whether tiny toon adventures in ponyland is better or worse as a show than magical pony adventures is a tough call. On the other hoof, it does cause issues for writers, both in and out of the show.
As a consistent world? It's wrecked. There are essentially two Equestrias, at least. The first one is the one held to by "season 1" writers (including those who write in the season 1 spirit). The second is the "season 2" world. The first has continuity, integrity, and consistency. The second throws all those out for wackier hijinks to arguably still tell a fun story. The mare do well episode, for example, totally changes the tone of ponyville, irrevocably, if you try to incorporate it into other episodes. You can't, not really, not easily, not and remain consistent. As an episode, it was a great and fun lesson, and as a homage to super hero flicks it was easily one of the best I've seen. As a bonafide part of the medieval world we saw in season 1? Nope.
So for writers, we have to build our own Equestria. We usually do, to be honest. Without an official map, we all have our own ideas. Sometimes those ideas gel and solidify (such as Zebronia), sometimes they don't (plenty of season 1-based origin fics got jossed so hard, their authors gave up). But when the canon itself is inconsistent?
Well, for me, I can honestly say that as a fictional universe, my own head-canon that gels as much as possible with the show is superior to that presented in episodes like "mare do well". Not because I'm a better writer, but because my world is consistent. Essentially, all my stories (barring TCB, which are themselves a single universe, bar one) are in the same universe. I play up different aspects (teething problems, and calling the shots spring to mind as gag stories), but nothing outright changes the world itself. Some stories examine different parts of the world, or present new occurences, sure - that's what stories do - but they all belong in the same basket.
As a fictional universe, that's superior. It's maybe not so suitable for 8 year old girls, but then again I also don't think the season 2 tone is so suitable for that age-group either, it strikes me as more for 8-14 year olds, boy OR girl, and that may be an improvement from a product placement perspective.
anyway, food for thought. I'm sure I've forgotten something, so I'll probably comment later.
I'm actually quite a fan of the Season 2 episodes, to be honest - I'm a fan of the slice-y thing they have going. The canon for the show doesn't quite always match up - that's fine. It's almost never that relevant, and kind of to be expected when Faust:
a) Had no part in S2's plot other than advising
b) Was surprised by the fact that somepony in the final episode(s) is an Alicorn.
And I'm a little worried that perhaps the fanservice will one day, go a bit too far, if you catch my drift. At that point, perhaps the show will have jumped the metaphorical shark. (On a related note, I'm surprised that the characters haven't literally jumped an alligator or similar, and made a joke about shark-jumping yet)
Oh well. We've always got Season one.
I'm not really sure what you're getting at here Mids? The setting of season 2 isn't as magical as season 1 apart from when it is? The only episode I think which brings that to mind is the Mare Do Well episode, the rest are pretty much in keeping. There was lots of that stuff in season 1 too, most notably the Appleoosa episode when suddenly Equestria is the 1800s.
I'm also a bit confused how you equate an episode where we see lots of dragons and phoenixes, set in a volcano and a mysterious dark forest as 'not magical enough'.
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I'm a fan of the episodes, they just play merry hell with continuity. It probably doesn't matter to the audience, but if you're trying to write a story in this world, and they create an inconsistent world, well it's difficult for the fanfic writers. But hey, who cares about them eh?
I do think it could jump the shark, I don't think it has. The way it's set up, they've got plenty of room for genuinely funny and moving plots, I just have to remind myself more often in season 2 that it's for little kids.
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I may be wrong. I shall have to do a more fuller analysis, but season 2 seems to be more of a gag-orientated season.
Whilst we had manehatten and appleloosa in season 1, in season 2 we've seen plots revolve more around more-modern society-type issues, or so it seems. Lesson zero (other than the want-it-need-it spell) could have happened in any modern city, whereas, for example, bridle gossip definitely had a more medieval feel to it. The CMC's did upset that, and continue to (and will in the future when they create a tabloid magazine)... but it just feels that less emphasis is on the magic part, and more on the friendship part, in season 2.
It's not a bad thing, per se, but it is a tonal shift.
I forgot about Manehatten! Surely that is far more worldbreaking than everything else! I think you might be seeing things that aren't there though. I can't really think of many episodes that could /only/ take place in a medieval setting. Even Bridle Gossip is pretty much 'oh no a black person' which could take place in any setting ever (unless you meant the Poison Joke angle). It's a strength though, being able to set lots of different types of stories in the same setting.
C'mon Mids, only last week the dog that guarded the gates to hell showed up!
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It's the tone more than the setting, but... I don't know. You're probably right. The dog guarding the gates to hell WAS a big thing. I'll see if I have something for another post.
I'm not saying I don't like season 2, I do, I just feel the tone has shifted.
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Word of Faust is that they use magic instead of electricity - Tank's flying device, for example, and the Flim Flam Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 were all powered by thaumatic batteries, and of course unicorns themselves.
Still, interesting.
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Or alternately, Equestria is MONDAS
FFFFFFFFFF
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Considering the show's target audience the mention of Cerberus and Tartarus may be a sort of attempt at tangental learning. (Orion might quality too.) The kids see this reference in the show, don't know what it is, and then ask their parents about it. The result could be that thousands of kids are now looking this information up and reading about it on their own, enthusiastically.
This is different from what it would be if the show tried to explain it themselves. The kids are smart enough to detect a blatant attempt to be educational, and would likely tune out. But the show gives just enough information that the parents know what's going on right away, while the kids now want to learn about it.
The Uncharted series has had a similar effect on me. Uncharted 2 mentions Marco Polo's travels, and sure enough I was reading about that on my own to learn more information to see where the show got it's ideas. Uncharted 3 went with Lawrence of Arabia, and yup, found myself reading about that one too.
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Equestria as Mondas... BRAINGASM. That's freakin' genius!
i find "equestria" is like england.. in a few ways.
they have a set structure of the world (regal, powerful, coragous, knightly.. ect) but they are also mainstream (harry potter, double decker busses, and just normal random things)
the overtone of the world of equestria is regal. while the story of the "slice of life" shows the more average day.
so equestria has traditions. but is not afraid to step into the sun to progress towards a new day.
at least that is how it is in my mind.
and i will admit some episodes are more "gag" related.. (so far only the mare do-well)
but as for the recent one it does cater to more of the serious storyline. adopted kids and the "who am i?" question. plus with a sidestep of dealing with bullys.
TL:DR
there is one equestria with traditions but also an adventureous spirit.
PS: the only downside was the "nothing about dragons". they could have talked to the princess.
You know, now that I think about it... Yeah, you're totally right! I mean, I've LIKED the season 2 episodes, yeah, but I haven't seen them more than once, aside from the few you mentioned above. I... I think that's why I'm not liking season two as much. Season one was EPIC! Season two? Just sorta feels... Meh, mostly. LOVED Luna's Ep, and a couple others, but that's it.
I'm still of the thought that the world of Equestria is low fantasy, though with this season they're moving more towards magical realism than anything else (there's a difference between the two styles for those not versed in them.) I do agree that they're more gag oriented than anything else this season and not as focused on a timeline because, let's face it, it was originally a kid's show and TV syndicators (erroneously) "know" that kids are dumb and prefer repetition over originality, regardless of whatever repeated studies have proven otherwise (it's the same reason why the show may end at 65 eps; that's the minimum needed for syndication.) The writers for season two all work on shows that have followed the syndication rule, which is why the slice of life eps abound (you can run them in any fashion you want), though the animators seem to be more focused on continuity.
This is one of the reasons why we need to keep showing the love for the show. As time passes, if we make our point known, then maybe that will change and you'll see Fluttershy's parents, et. al. In general, shows with a stable mythos tend to last longer than ones that don't (another fact that seems to escape many modern TV programmers.)
What does this have to do with continuity? Simple: kid's shows "don't need it" (or so they say) but shows for a broader audience do.
You have perfectly summed up my concerns here--Lauren Faust's waning influence is becoming more pronounced as the season progresses, and frankly I'm afraid to know how badly it will affect season 3.
I share your concerns and think that if it were to be summarised in a single sentence it would be something like "Some of the Season Two staff are changing Equestria to fit Season Two's stories instead of changing Season Two's stories to fit Equestria."
Of course these world breakers happened in season one (Manehatten, for example) and season two has also introduced a lot of world-consistent lore, but still though. I don't want to see ponies playing videogame arcade machines or building skyscrapers in quiet rural villages or even having roads that only ever existed so Rainbow Dash can stop a baby slalom-ing off the end of it in an episode.
I agree with you about the "Season One world" and "Season Two world". If I would pick one writer out in particular, MWW is guilty of doing a lot of that second one. Many of the strange additions have been due to her writing... and then brings them back in later episodes (Like that damn... dam!) to try and make a point? Who knows. Even her good episodes have done this. Hearth's Warming Eve created an entirely new origin story for Equestria which jossed so much fanon when it didn't really need to and added its own difficult questions about how Equestria functions!
I'm not really sure what you're getting at with this post. The reason why I stuck around with ponies is because it is, always will and always has been tiny toon adventures with ponies. The magic of friendship you claim has been downplayed is basically wholly confined within the first 2 episodes of either season. The rest of the episodes play with pretty much every modern, classical and magical convention under the sun.
S2 may be whackier overall, but you are kidding yourself if you think S1 was any better in keeping a consistent magical tone.
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Eh, I'm probably missing quite a few points. I think I really do have to go through S1 and S2 when this season is over, during the summer, and just compare.
It's definitely not bad, I never said that, and many things are greatly improved in season 2 (the animation is far more dynamic, with a greater variety in body types, shots and locations) but I'm getting a different "feel" from Season 2 in terms of story tone and setting. It's not something I can quantify so it's opinion vs opinion at this point, and it may just be the types of episodes that have aired at the time vs ones that haven't, and I'm entirely open to the idea it's just confirmation bias.