Anticipating Season 5 · 8:05am Dec 17th, 2014
With a couple more months or so to go before we see Season 5, what are you hoping to see? I'd love to see a return of the changelings. However, I would also dread it because almost inevitably it will contradict my story fanon. Of course such is the nature of fanfiction, especially stories that try to stick as close as possible to show canon. I'm still proud of what I've written with regards to them though, so whatever comes, I think it will survive as a viable alternative universe.
One bit of fanon that was not explicitly stated in my stories is that the six Equestrian hives are hardly the only ones in the world. There are hives to be found in the Crystal Empire, Prance, Zebrica, Saddle Arabia, or anywhere ponies, zebras, griffins, or other intelligent species have established civilization. Hopefully none closely resemble the Equestrian Blue Changelings though, or else they might have trouble visiting!
They may or may not be be made non canon. many stories here have no chance to be cannon but still be great stories. Changeling's returning will be good. More lore story would be cool. Heck make an alternate version of Past Sins.
I'd love to see Changelings in a non-antagonistic role too ... heck, maybe even give them an arc; I'd also like to see Gilda and Trixie again, maybe even in the same episode. "Griffon a Second Chance" anypony? Give a few background ponies a "Lower Decks" episode. Maybe even develop Flash Sentry a bit better ... he was kind of brought in and ignored, so I kinda understand the fans portraying him as "Captain Cardboard". Hell, complete the Equestria Girls trilogy before the end of the season and bring Sunset Shimmer into the show proper. I kinda half expect this to be the last season of FIM proper though (don't necessarily want it to end, but it's looking like a lot of things are moving towards it - and if they don't wrap, they need to introduce some new conflicts and new dynamics), so I'd like to see a lot of plot threads resolved (especially the CMC get their cutie marks and settle things with Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon once and for all; not necessarily in the same episode) as well as setting up a "Generation 4.5" spinoff set a few years down the line and starting in a year or two.
No matter what they do in the show, we can always flip the Alternate Universe card to make our stories legit, which is very good if our story is, in fact, better and makes more sense than the canon show that would otherwise correspond to it.
2659141
It sounds more like you want it to end. Take into account that Doctor Who is over 50 years old and still going strong with a massive fandom behind it, and MLP has Doctor Hooves.
I think we got all the time in the world.
2659317
True, but Doctor Who has a much broader setting to work in (any planet in the universe, at any period in that planet's history), and the cast of characters constantly changes from episode to episode, and season to season. Companions come and go, and even the Doctor himself gets reinvented every few years whenever they "regenerate" from one actor to another. (Not to mention that the show cheerfully contradicts and ignores its own "wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey" continuity whenever it suits them. Time travel means never having to apologize for destroying Atlantis in three different completely contradictory ways in one series.
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Plus, there is something to be said for going out while you're still on top. As much as I like the show, I'd just as soon not see it go on indefinitely if it means turning into a sad shadow of itself, like The Simpsons, that people watch more out of habit and nostalgia than because they actually enjoy the show.
2659607
I throw Sonic the Hedgehog and related media at this argument.
2659141 Yeah, there's still plenty of room in future seasons for them to flesh out the world. Griffons and Changeling-based episodes would go a long way to filling in some of those details. And then I could finally get my Gilda-Redemption episode. Oh, Trixie gets an episode, but not Gilda? Boo. We need more griffons. Heck, I wish there had been a griffon in the Ice Archery contest in the Equestria Games just so we could see how talons are useful with bows.
But yeah, new places, new things. I'd even settle for seeing Trottingham, just so we can have more Pip and introduce a Robin Hood-esque pony.
2659317
2659737
Relax, I'm not talking about an ending-ending. More of a time-skip and possibly a title change, along with a shift in focus and/or starting multiple spinoffs. I'm thinking this way in part because two of the Mane Six's personal story arcs (Rarity and Rainbow Dash) will be taking them away from Ponyville, and both of them could do well with their own spinoffs set in Manehattan and with the Wonderbolts respectively, or at least their own sub-casts and plotlines. Also, a relatively short time skip (a few years) would give the chance to do stories with the Crusaders and their classmates coming of age and finding their places in the world as adolescents, with a new group of foals including the Cake Twins coming into focus as well. Lastly, Equestria as a whole needs to catch its breath, and go a few years without some horrible threat, and you could either do a couple seasons with only regional threats on par with Sombra and Crystalis instead of Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Tirek level stuff, or simply do a time skip.
2659772 I'd be okay with it. I mean, it's hard to believe Seasons 1, Ep 1 through Seasons 4, Ep 1 was ONLY a single year of time for the group. We had Nightmare Moon, Chrysalis, Sombra, and then Princess Twilight... all within the span of a single year. That's a lot of stuff.
Heck, I'd be okay if it was just a one-off episode where we got to see a bit of the future of Equestria. Not that it'll happen, but it might be nice if the Flower Trio weren't buying hazmat suits in bulk for a few years.
But more likely, we have to see all about the new Crystal Castle/Tree of Twilight's, and getting the Rainbow Powers sorted out. But maybe after that, maybe they'll let Twilight (and Friends) go on a world-wide adventure. See stuff like the Griffon Kingdom, the Zebra Lands, Anugypt (home of Anubis and established in the comics), and wherever the Diamond Dogs are from. And then there's the Sea Ponies. Shoo bee doo...
2659631
Since each incarnation of the Sonic the Hedgehog cartoons have all taken place in different continuities, with different supporting characters and considerably different overall tones and themes, I'm not quite sure what your point is here...
2659807 Yeah, and I expect the thrust of Season 5 to be about those things. That one-year timespan doesn't really sit well with me in some ways, it makes things too chaotic, too ... busy. I'd rather they stretch things out a bit more. I'd love a time travel episode too ... and I would definitely love to see the Mane Six take a world tour ... they've bucking earned a vacation. I've always pictured the Diamond Dogs being semi-nomadic, with packs picking up and moving every now and then when things get too hot for them to handle; their ancestral homeland being a long-ago memory - but that's just my headcanon, and not even deeply entrenched at that.
I can certainly see a couple more seasons before the skip-and-split working well, especially if they can do something big as an overarching plot, like maybe the integration of Changelings as an open part of Equestrian society ... possibly setting up a Changeling to be a main character in a spinoff (Rarity's maybe - as a fashion model, or perhaps a younger Changeling who's running with the Crusaders; maybe even both).
I would love to see either Gilda or trixie return ^^ or an episode where celestia has a fun day with the gang ^^
2659607 There certainly is the risk of running the show into the ground, but only if they blindly insist on focusing the episodes mostly about the Mane 6. The MLP universe has enormous potential for alternative characters and locations, so if they aren't forced to stick to just the same ponies all the time (i.e. the big toy-sellers), then they can come up with new episodes that are fresh and conducive to the longevity of the show.
2659772
I deem that logic sound, for the most part.
2659963
There, indeed, lies the $64,000 question. Will they be allowed to expand the scope of the show beyond Ponyville and the Mane Six? That almost seems like they'd have to go from a series format to an anthology format, and I can't think of any show that's ever done that before...
2660355 And yet it's the innovative shows that are usually the most successful. DHX would have a better show, Hasbro would have an expanded toy range, and the fans would get the benefits of both. Time will tell, I suppose.
2660355 It doesn't necessarily have to go full-on anthology in the sense of the old Twilight Zone episodes, where there is nothing carried over; maybe something akin to an anime that has three or four interconnected adventures running simultaneously at any given time, each with a different subset of the cast. Or simply having an expanded cast that can focus on one group plus guest characters for a given episode. For example, one episode could be Twilight and Luna negotiating a treaty with the Changelings; while the next would have Rainbow Dash and the rest of the Wonderbolts on a goodwill tour of the Griffon Kingdoms, followed up by a third focusing on Rarity in Manehattan trying to fill a commission and keep the CMC (including Babs) out of trouble.