Let's talk about G5 · 4:50pm Dec 17th, 2017
I've been low-key freaking out about a bunch of unrelated things this morning, so why not distract myself by talking about the new hotness? Things you can expect from this blog:
- Opinions on what I've seen of G5 so far. Warning, it's not much, so I'm not going to be spoiling anything.
- Opinions on G5 as a concept.
- Opinions on G4. They're not going to be pleasant. This is basically "Present Perfect vs. G4", is what I'm saying. Ugh, there's so much ranting, you're not even going to want to read this.- Sadness that Like a G5 was never hailed as the fandom classic I wanted it to be. D:
So let's get started.
If you want to see anything G5-related, please go to Equestria Daily. You should be able to find it easily enough. Warnings abound, and I'm not exactly sure what for: the files may have viruses, there may be legal repercussions (as someone on Tumblr suggested), or you may just need to take everything with a grain of salt. I'm of a mind to the latter, myself, though from what Chinchillax and DrakeyC have said, it sounds like everything's legit. It wouldn't be the first time, after all; we basically knew the titles of season seven's episodes shortly after the season was announced, after all. DHX has zero security, and it's kind of ruining my enjoyment of the show.
So what have I seen? Basically just EQD's first post. All I remember are a couple uninteresting background shots, along with sketches of character designs for Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy and the worst possible Applejack, I mean, my god, who thought that was a good idea? D: The rest of it, from what I hear, is seriously incomplete, though, so shouldn't be judged. Ergo, that's the sum of my opinions on the content that's been released. The rest, I don't care about.
But as for a fifth generation of My Little Pony. It's a foregone conclusion, I feel. It was gonna happen eventually. I wish it had happened sooner, but we'll get to that. But in case you haven't heard, apparently another movie and season nine are going to end G4, and I couldn't be happier.
You know another show that's about to end? Adventure Time. Its season nine is scheduled to be the last one, and I'm glad. I've watched it since about season four or so, and things have definitely been going slowly downhill for a while. I just caught up with the show, in fact, which is part of the reason why I thought to write this blog. Of the four most recently released episodes, one was really exciting, one set up some stuff that will no doubt pay off in the season finale, and the other two were very "this would be an interesting idea if anyone cared". Seriously, Tree Trunks's amazing adventures in her early life? Great concept, but the execution barely got a shrug out of me.
In the same way, I'm ready for MLP:FiM to be over.
...Okay, I've been ready for it to be over since S1, S2 at the latest. >.> If all we'd had had been S1, I'd have been happy. I'd have finished The Elements of Awesomery years ago, the fandom wouldn't have grown as huge as it is now, and me and the few friends I made could all look back on "Hey, remember when the internet was really into My Little Pony? That was weird, but it was a good time."
Instead, we watched a show that showed us in the best way possible that programming meant for little girls could have depth and meaning, and be enjoyed by more than its target demographic slide away from the core values that made it amazing, slurging into corporate despair and a betrayal of its moral foundations.
This, by the way, is the rant part of the blog. I've been saving this up for about four years.
You know every time I've gotten, like, really mad when people come onto my blogs and try to counter my analysis of an episode with "It's just a cartoon for little girls, stop taking it so seriously"? I mean, I may not have expressed that anger at the time, but it was there.
The whole point of MLP:FiM is that it was not just a 'cartoon for little girls'. That's basically code for "garbage television", and My Little Pony is at least partially to blame for it. The whole point of the show was that it took "girls' programming" and elevated it beyond what had come before it. Suddenly, we had a show that appealed to girls, boys, men and women in equal measure. This was important. It was important enough that being a part of the brony fandom in its early days tended to make people -- me included -- kind of big-headed. It was like, whoa, look at us, we're celebrating womanhood and breaking gender barriers. Aren't we great? And of course, that was bullshit, but we didn't know any better.
The point is, it was a big thing. Like, if you can't understand how important MLP was in a cultural sense, I'm not sure I can explain it to you. It's got to be self-evident, right? And when you say "It's just a little girls' show", I get angry, because that means either A) G4 failed at its task, since you didn't get it, which can't possibly be true, because so many people did, and therefore B)
You
Just
Don't
Care
Few things get me angrier than people callously being uncaring about important things and then getting indignant when people who do care get mad at them. If the show isn't a major driving force in your life, that's fine, that doesn't make you a bad person or anything. But don't denigrate it for the rest of us. Have some freaking respect!
And moreover, please, for the love of god, recognize that the show has gone downhill since season two. Have some goddamned standards. Aren't standards a thing anymore? I don't just randomly hate episodes from seasons three, four, six and seven because I'm some kind of ingrate: I don't see the show I fell in love with. (You'll notice I left out season five, because it was such an anomaly of getting back to the roots.) I expect better things from this show because it's not just a 'little girls' cartoon'. It had meaning, it had value, and that value has been drained away for the same reason all value drains away: corporate greed.
And it's all Lauren Faust's fault.
I really hate myself for saying this. I spent years being a die-hard Faustian, and then around season six, I had the horrifying epiphany that this wouldn't have happened if she hadn't left. Like, yeah, Hasbro was meddling with her vision something fierce, and she couldn't handle the pressure of running the show or something.
But I wish she'd never started the show.
Because, in her weakness, whatever was going on in her life notwithstanding, she let Hasbro take full control of what was hers, what was her vision, and ruin it. They could bank on the good graces of "Hey, remember this old episode that was really good and had a really strong message" and turn it into something shallow and meaningless. "It used to be good, therefore it still is" is the kind of viewpoint that gave us MAGA.
If she had stuck with it, it might've been soul-crushing, but she could have pushed back. She could have kept the creative vision on track. She could have done something with what she was handed instead of just giving up. I mean, the analogy is right there in fanfiction: canon does something that kills your headcanon you've been writing for three years, and you despair a little at first, but then realize what a goldmine you've been handed, how many other things can come out of this new interpretation of the show, and you run with it. At worst, you go, well, that's done with, then, and take the opportunity to explore something else you've been putting off.
Instead, she basically cancelled her ongoing epic slice of life fic and some chucklefuck from Reddit decided to "finish" it.
Believe it or not, I have a point with all of this, because I think I'm done ranting: I welcome the changes. Those overdesigned G5 ponies? They make a bold statement: This is not Lauren Faust's MLP. I don't know if they'll pick up from wherever the show leaves off or start something brand new. Whatever they do, it's likely to be diminished in comparison to G4, as recent seasons have been in comparison to their predecessors. I mean, who knows, with a new creative vision solidly backing the series going forward, it could turn into something at least enjoyable for its own merits. Season seven wasn't bad, all things considered, and if I lump it in with the seasons I actually dislike, it's because I didn't enjoy watching it thanks to all the leaks, to say nothing of lingering anti-Starlight sentiment.
That said, I'd rather they not take the mane six and redesign them and keep going. I mean, look at the transition from G3 to G3.5: they went from a set of recurring characters to a "core seven", who were then redesigned, flanderized and rebooted into the garbage G4 would be created to dispel. And nothing about G3 was great, but there's a very clear dip in the quality of everything as it trundles toward G3.5.
I didn't want that for G4. I've been saying forever -- and no one, I should mention has listened or understood -- that I wanted the show to end before it got bad, before we got our confusing comet arc like Adventure Time did. It's too late for that now. I can hope that S8 and S9 will be at around the levels of S7, which is to say around the levels of S2: not quite hitting the same heights, but more enjoyable than not, with no more than one or two episodes I really hate. (BTW, still working on the vs. S7 post, no chance of that getting out before the end of the year. ;_; )
There's maybe a case to be had that we're in G4.5 right now. Maybe since Twilicorn, maybe since the wedding, maybe just since Starlight's formation; I don't know, and given that there's no real design cue, as there is for G3.5, I think arguing over it is pointless.
The point is, G4 is dead, long live G5, it's about fucking time. I'm not looking forward to a second movie, because it's probably going to be shit -- I've already been burned once, counting on Rainbow Rocks to strike twice -- and I'm not looking forward to S8 or S9 because, while there's plenty of room for them to be good, I'm ready to be done with this. When G4 is over, I will breathe a sigh of relief, and go back to writing fanfic, safe in the knowledge that I don't have to worry anymore. Will I watch G5? Of course. Will I like it? Way too early to say.
If this blog made you angry, I apologize, but I've been angry for about five years straight now, so welcome to my world.
All I have to say on the matter is that if I felt like how you did about the show, I:
1.Wouldn’t be writing fanfics for it
2.Wouldn’t be on site staff for a website specifically dedicated to fanfiction about the show
3.Wouldn’t be catching episodes as soon as they air
4.Would have dropped it a long time ago like I did with Ben 10 when it went Omniverse and I just stopped caring.
I already wrote a huge post on how I feel about the show, so I’ll just link it instead of reiterating my points.
Which episode touched you in the no-no place, PP?
You can tell us. This is a safe place.
well about the lauren faust bit if she did that the show would've been booted by hasbro even if she goes to some other company they'll do the same greed has a tight hold on humanity
I hear it's going to be all batponies.
Firstly, I see where you're coming from in regards to the show, and while I don't agree with what you say in terms of the later seasons, I've learned why they may not be as appealing as the earlier seasons of the show for some, as everything was new and mysterious back then. That being said, G4's conclusion has been rather overdue, and this is coming from someone who adored Season 7 and Starlight Glimmer's character.
Even if Season 8 and MLP's future aren't to my liking, and I'm sadly not too enthused about the former based on the spoilers, I'll always thank the show and the community it has built for the opportunity to meet amazing people. No adjustments in the show's direction or a new generation of ponies could ever change that.
As someone who owns stock in Hasbro and often listens to what they say on a commercial basis, I think the reason for G5 is quite clear. They really do believe in the My Little Pony brand, no doubts about that, but the show does present some issues for the company. It isn't the quality, ratings, or budgetary constraints, but the age of the show is making it hard to attract new fans.
Isn't it strange that the fanbase is shrinking, while the MLP brand itself is growing at a good and steady rate? (Check their annual MLP related sales figures increase.) The problem is that season one's age is showing, and much of the quality isn't up to scruff to compete with newer shows. To me, it makes perfect sense. It gives new viewers a fresh chance to dip into the show without the daunting list of 7 seasons to go through. I only hope they can pull it off, but I have faith still. Hasbro knows that good content is king in today's world.
Another reason it needs something fresh is because our darlings, the main 6, are now pretty much full grown and successful adults who have attained their goals in life. Any episodes that tries to dumb them down like Carts Before The Ponies will likely be dismissed as garbage and OOC. They tried to give it a fresh perspective with Trixie and Starlight, who still had a lot to learn, and I'd say they were moderately successful.
I respectfully disagree.
4751090
*Points to OP of same thread for his own take on it*
TL;DR is that I think our perceptions of the show have changed more than its actual quality. There were dud episodes in S1 and S2 (and the vaunted Rainbow Rocks had big flaws), but these get ignored because it was magical. We're simply at the point in the fandom's life where the magic is gone for most people.
The magic is assuredly over for me - I'll still geek out over the great new episodes and enjoy the fandom, but the childlike wonder of S1 is dead and gone. Thus said, I really haven't heard a convincing argument that there has been an actual, substantial decline in overall quality. I really think it's just the age of the show forcing them to stretch further for plots, while confronted with a fandom unforgiving of flaws they ignored in years past.
EDIT: I do really want to see those G5 leaks...
EDIT 2: Jesus tf Christ, whole S8 episodes got leaked! I want none of that. Just curious what the G5 pones actually look like.
Think you're generally right about this stuff (if I still probably put 2 over 1, mostly). I'll grant some could be based on losing the shiny-new-thing aspect over time (but then, the unredeemable second half of Season 3 argues against that as the primary factor), but it seems like things either should have been winding down or moved on from for a while now, and that the show's relied on tricks to keep things interesting/moving (Discord and Starlight and bringing back Trixie long term, the keys, map, ... ). And they were kind of hampered by the fact that half the Mane 6 never had much in terms of goals to work towards (AJ wants things to stay the way they are, Pinkie has what she wants, Fluttershy needs to become more comfortable with people, but is halfway there before S1 is out), and the others were mishandled (Twilight becomes a princess--which she never indicated she wanted--out of nowhere for no reason, and it has minimal consequences outside season open/endings; Rainbow Dash stumbles her way into the Wonderbolts through 1-2 episodes a season, beating the discipline step by discovering a new superpower, and this has no consequences outside of those 1-2 episodes a season; Rarity's probably the best handled, and there still seem to be missing steps, and despite now having multiple branches across Equestria there's no indication it's generally changed her day to day life; the world warps itself around them to make sure that the characters can have everything they want without needing to make sacrifices or make choices).
Frankly, since at least S4 I've been here much more for the fandom than the show, and when it gives me something great (which still happens a few times per season) I take that as icing on the cake.
I'm interested to see what will come next.
Horse Reviewer Gets Mad That People Don't Take His Opinion as Objective Fact: The Blog Post
Sorry famamlam but the first seasons were trash. They were magical and unique sure, but take off your fucking nostalgia glasses and look at how terribly written and constructed they are. Faust was a great creative visionary, but in terms of applying her actual ideas? THEY SUCK. The only episodes faust wrote herself are some of the worst of the series.
The show grew over time. Things happened to the characters and they changed. Some of the episodes are shit, sure—but to pretend that seasons 1 and 2 were anything better than any of the other seasons is a blatant appeal to how you felt when you first discovered the show. The quality of the show has remained fairly consistent (for me at least) and I feel as if it's only gotten more enjoyable over time.
Not that much time has really passed, and not that much has really changed. I know you enjoy testing how much PSI your forehead vein can take, but try having some fun for fifteen seconds.
I had a similar realization shortly after Season 3.
I had started watching the show in the middle of Season 2 (Hurricane Fluttershy was the first episode I saw the weekend it aired, I'm pretty sure). And man, was that season finale so much fun. I had no idea changelings were about to be a thing, and when it happened, I was blown away. And then during Season 3, I looked for every bit of information I could. I knew about Discord being redeemed weeks before it happened. And man, did I have a bad time during Season 3. I continually dreaded upcoming episodes and was generally miserable. So I took a drastically different approach during Season 4. I avoided every single spoiler I could. I even went so far as to not watch episodes and save them all up for a marathon session. And when I did watch episodes, I'd go back to blogs like this one* to get an idea for what people thought of them. That was the real eye-opener, I think. I had a good time watching the vast majority of Season 4 (and every season since), yet it seemed the general reaction here wasn't so hot.
I've had a much better time watching pone separating myself as much as possible from spoilers (and almost the fandom). People love to analyze (and over-analyze), and that's pretty cool. But a lot of people, in doing so, forget how to have fun. And then their audience gets sucked in, and it's not too long before everyone's going pretty deep before episodes even come out. I definitely got caught up in all of that during Season 3. I just think it's much better for your sanity and your enjoyment of the show to analyze after and ignore spoilers beforehand. It's what I've done since Season 4 started, and it's greatly improved every aspect of my life that involves pone.
*Your episode blogs are always fun, by the way.
Jeez man, that's a lot of hatred for something you've put a ton of your life into for 7 years.
I was always of the opinion that the show would only end at the point we'd be begging for it to end it's gotten so bad. I personally haven't reached that point. Mostly because Ponies and the fandom is still one of the few things I like about being alive. I know I'm a heretic for having season 3 be my favorite, but this is a good show—it's still a good show. And that's always been a pleasant surprise to me.
I always interpreted this sentiment as the MST3K Mantra: "It's just a TV show so relax." Yes, this is a huge wonderful cultural impact, but a few bad episodes shouldn't ruin your life. I think you may have too much in stake in this one area of the internet, Present Perfect. Maybe take a break and try something the complete opposite of ponies... like hiking or cryptocurrencies or something?
Life is too long to spend on something you hate :/
---
I'm taking your reaction as that you're not going to review the season 8 episodes early. Which should make it easier to decide not see them myself.
4751170
Dude no. I was into that shit for like 2 weeks and it was the most stressful two weeks of my life.
…made double my money but oh my God it was like playing pinball with dynamite.
Honestly, PP, I can't blame Faust. She made a great thing, and then got wedged out of it so its corporate owners could extract profit.
You know who I do blame? Meghan McCarthy.
She was a staff writer on S1. Wrote Dragonshy. Has written 22 episodes since, along with EG, Rainbow Rocks, and The Movie. Showrunner since 2011. Story editor 2012-2015. Executive producer 2013-2015, and on Legend of Everfree and The Movie.
She also absolutely didn't get what Faust was going for. She was one of the only original writing staff still on the production, and has been the person with whom the buck stops, writing wise, through the entire decline.
Her current title is Head of Storytelling for the MLP and LPS brands at Hasbro. You want someone to directly pin the state of the story on, she's it.
I need to remember to post more thoughts later. I'm literally at a party for me right now so can't elaborate on stuff.
Fwiw, I know that the show has diminished quite a lot on a number of fronts. I don't blame Lauren for that. But. Well later. If I don't do it soon, PP, yell at me.
4751173
Okay, maybe not cryptocurrencies.
I dunno, what's the opposite of ponies? Something PP could take a break with and leave the fandom for a while. There's a lot of life to be lived that's not pony related.
4751090
I feel very similarly to PP on a lot of this. Ant speak for him, but I still love the characters. I tried to quit. It didn't stick. Not because of the show (there have been good and great episodes, but there have been a lot of bad ones. And some that left me feeling nothing at all about them ,) but because I'm still half in love with 4 of the mane cast. They are still some of the more interesting and captivating characters in any media I consume. I still think about them constantly.
I don't care about Trixie or discord or fucking glimmer. I don't have feelings about maud or sunburst or whoever else they decide is the new focus of the show. I do still care for Dash and twilight and pinkie and rarity. i apparently care enough to continue writing and drawing them even though I'm not super into the show these days. Whether you label that nostalgia glasses or just accept that the writing and goals of the show have changed, I don't really care.
But it's entirely possible to love characters even if your dislike the stories they're now in. Especially in a show so deeply rooted in close character interactions.
Ultimately, I'm holding out hope for episodes like Saddle Row Review and Secrets and Pies. We may get only 1-2 of those a season, but nothing says I have to like everything DHX puts out in order to love Pinkie Pie.
I'm ok with G4 ending. It had to eventually, and what has it been leading up to since twilicorn, really?
S3 and S4 were terribad, and S5 was great, on that we agree. S6 and S7 just feel like a directors cut, but they're fun. What's depressing is that the chances of g5 being anywhere near as good as g4 are nil. I don't know if you've seen the emails, but McCarthy is struggling to keep things scoped and timed properly. And they have some type of focus group (idk where they got these people from) and they really, really don't like Applejack. (or unshorn fetlocks; god these leaks are great)
There's an email that came from within the team where it's outright stated that they all "100% agree" that Applejack is to have little to do with apples in Gen 5, and she is also to be completely divorced from being a farmer/cowpony/"hick-ish" (yes they actually used that word) character.
It sounds to me like the creative team behind the show no longer gets Gen 4, and also just doesn't care. I haven't even seen Gen 5 and I hate it already. We already know they won't give Gen 4 a good send-off, with either another lukewarm movie or a season finale on par with... well, the other mediocre season bookends they've put out.
The show really did go downhill, even if it was slighter and less noticeable than other shows given how cutesy and self-contained all the arcs were. I'm just sad so few of the stories I really wanted to see actually made it in before the end.
Oh well! Two more years and I'm finally free of this ride.
4751205
I’m sorry if it came off like that was my intention. It wasn’t. I was just sharing how I would probably act if I was in PP’s situation.
I happen to like nearly everything they put out. Call that low standards or being easily entertained, that’s your prerogative.
I also happen to have a friend who doesn’t like a large portion of the show, so he only watches Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Starlight episodes. He actively avoids things he doesn’t like about the show. I have other friends who think the show has completely gone off the rails, so they stick to discord chats and writing fanfiction. They actively avoids the show unless word gets around there’s a standout episode. I have another friend who’s incredibly leery about season 8 and is probably not going to watch it unless we clue him into a good episode. He’s going to be avoiding the show unless he has reason to do otherwise.
Again, reading over my initial post, it does come across as rather blunt and direct, and perhaps a little condescending. But I also generally know people prefer to avoid inflicting pain on themselves, whether physical or mental, and that was my initial take on the matter based on my own experiences.
4751099
God now I gotta go wash all this jizz off my pants. Thanks Biscuit.
4751114
Some really good points.
4751217
It's a basic failure of their writing team that drives this.
They rarely use AJ because her primary touchstone is home and family. She has what she wants.
The issue being that the writers never bothered to give her a reason to do anything else, so of course it's hard to find motivation to use her as a character. It's the same short sightedness that led to writing themselves into a corner with Twilight by sticking a title on her then realizing that they can't do slice of life worth a damn with a Princess and thus we get Glimmer to be not-Twi.
Present perfect I have a question and I don’t want it to come off the wrong way, but do you have other disappointments in your life that you unknowingly are channeling into disappointments about this show?
I respectfully disagree with a lot of the points you make, here. I have some standards, and I recognize that season 3 and 4 were not as good as S1 and S2, but since Season 5 the show has made overtures towards better writing and quality storytelling, a few bad episodes aside. Season 7 has been nothing but good, fun episodes in my opinion, with the exception of the Yak episode because why the hell are the Yaks still showing up nobody cares about them oh my god stop.
Season 1 and Season 2 had a magic to them that cannot be replicated. We all fell in love with the show during Season 1 and Season 2, and I feel like trying to put any of the later seasons on the pedestal we placed S1 and S2 is doing them a massive disservice. It's like how everybody puts Star Wars Episodes 4, 5, and 6 on this big pedestal, and can't find any enjoyment in any of the other films because our expectations of the brand are all based in this sense of child-like wonder and nostalgia that nothing can possibly hope to overcome. Season 1 and Season 2 are not the BEST SEASONS, they are very good and they have many solid episodes... and they also have some bad episodes and not-so-excellent points of storytelling failures. But we excuse SO much because we look back on that magical time when everything was fresh and can only see it through the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia.
I've lost my ultra-hype for MLP since Season 1 and 2, I'll freely admit it, but I've really enjoyed the show and thought that Season 5 and onward were an excellent upswing in content, storytelling, character arcs, and creativity that were sort of missing in Season 3 and 4.
So, there ya go. I'm sorry that nothing can live up to the hype of Season 1 and 2 in your eyes, but recognize that you're placing those seasons on a pedestal and, by doing so, missing out on enjoying a lot of the good that later stuff has offered.
Also, I've stayed the fuck out of fandom engagement beyond a small circle of people and I've avoided 90% of fandom drama for years and years, so that never tarnished my later enjoyment of the show. I'm not sure you can really say the same, but you've had a very different experience due to being popular far earlier in the fandom and becoming well known far earlier, whereas I'm still young, scrappy, and hungry.
4751177
funny thing, in the leaked e-mails she spends a lot of time getting incredibly angry about the way the higher-ups at hasbro are restricting her ability to run the show and restricting the ways the writers can take it. It's pretty clear that whatever decisions we're blaming on her are actually out of her hands entirely.
4751170
+1 for Season 3 being the best.
You wanna know what I hate? How seemingly everyone knows where to find the leaks but nobody ever fucking tells you how to find them. Just “Search (sometimes “4chan” is included here) and find it, I can’t post links.” Like, seriously, at least desribe how to fucking find the links, or where to search for the images, cause that’s all I fucking wanted to see. I found it, finally, after 20 minutes of searching 4chan, but that site is cancerously set up; it doesn’t even have real threads, just topics and replies that drop down if you’re lucky enough to find the button.
Now that that’s out of the way, I am very inclined to disagree with just about everything you said. I do feel that season 9 or 10 should be the end of the show, but I don’t look forward to it, I’m dreading it! Anyway, that’s just because that’s around when good shows go down hard. And the new Applejack. I agree about the new Applejack: fucking awful.
Also, if you hate the show that much, I’m gonna ask why, exactly, are you still here?
My views pretty much align with yours, though I can't bring myself to blame Faust for what happened. Realistically, what option did she have? Continue to fight with the execs and ultimately get canned? Considering she had an overall career in the industry to think about, I think she made the right call. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses.
4751217
That leaked email is a huge red flag. It indicates that the current staff doesn't understand what made the show so great to start with. Just look at the options they're entertaining for AJ's character... awful. A reboot is a chance to start over and get it right, but it seems like they're setting up to stumble out of the starting gate.
4751217
My reaction to this?
AJ is perfect the way that she is (IMHO), and calling her "hick-ish" isn't going to go over well with country folks like me.
(There's a reason that she is my No. 1 gave among the Mane 6, you know.)
And her very name has "apple" in it! How are the witless twits gonna get around that?!
If they end up turning her into the silly clutz like she was Gen1 up til Gen 4, I will personally go do someone a bodily injury.
4751291
I don't suppose that you could PM me with the links from 4Chan that you found this on?
Or would PM links be subject for a perma-ban, too?
If do, then please don't risk it.
As much as I'd like to so that email (or emails), I don't want anyone to risk that type of ban from here.
4751188
No
There is nothing but smol hors
4751119
I agree with this so much. Seasons 1 and 2 were, as has been said, magical. I think that honestly had less to do with the show itself than with the fact that it was bringing something new and different, and something that I expect many early fandom members really felt like they needed at the time. I came in at the tail end of Season 2 or the beginning of Season 3, and I still got to capture some of that. There was an energy and direction in the fandom that's been absent for a long time, and a type of fan-mythmaking for Equestria that was phenomenally compelling.
I honestly don't feel like a whole lot has changed with the show in the intervening years. I don't know if there's any way you can capture that magic and keep it bottled. The fandom (and the show) morphed from being this weird, special thing I'd never seen before into something... normal, expected. How could it be otherwise? What was new about MLP:FiM stopped being new after we'd had three or four years of it. What was different about the fandom gradually faded away as the fandom normalized to standard fannish trends.
It's the epitome of mono-no-aware, if you ask me. Beautiful for what it was, and in a way beautiful for its very transience, but never something that could have stayed with us forever.
I got into the show during the S3-S4 hiatus, so I never got the Faust worship. I do agree that the show has changed over time, in some ways better, in some ways worse. It does things that never could have been done in the early seasons, but has lost some of its kiddy charm in the process. I think a major reason the first two seasons are amazing is because people were taken by surprise that My Little Pony could actually be good. But then it went from pop culture phenomenon to mainstraim popularity (to an extent, anyway), and that magic is lost. I don't think the show is better or worse as a whole, it's just different. It's like Avatar vs Korra,they're apples and oranges.
That, I want G5 to totally be its own thing and not copy G4, but also not feel it has to avoid being anything like G4. It should just be. And we'll see if the pony franchise can prove that G4 was not a one-time lightning strike.
4751301
As a soon-to-be-alcoholic AJ fan, what ideas are they entertaining?
I'm sure everypony will look different, and AJ's name dates from way back so I can't honestly argue for keeping her style and personality in glass. And, painful as it is, her "cowboy" style is distinctly American and I can't blame them for following the dollars and pushing a broader international appeal (I think that's why she lost out on a lot of toys, too). Still, it'll be hard to reconcile old names with new ponies.
4751329
I’m not sure if PMs count, but I’d rather not risk it. If you want me to send you the image outside of this site, though, I’d be down for that. (Only have the image, not the whole 30 gigabyte file).
4751291 Okay, never mind.
I just found the thread with the pics of AJ, Twi, Flutters and Rarity's now looks in it, and they... honestly don't look that bad (AJ especially, as far as design goes. (She may markings, but she still has her freckles and an apple as her cutie mark.)
And as to this: ">artists want G5 ponies to have fetlocks. >corporates don't like it"? I think that fetlocks on our ponies would look absolutely awesome!!!
4751369
Except for the overly done hair style, I gotta say... Flutters as a unicorn looks pretty alright.
4751363 That's fine; like I said, I don't want you to.
And this is fine with me. PM me, and I'll shoot you my email address and you can send it there.
Just to be on the safe side.
4751371 Yeah, she does.
Personally, though, I like her better as a pegasus.
Hey, Lauren first pitched her as an earth pony, so she'd work well as a member of any of the three tribes, I would say.
As long as the ponies are cute and the animation is good ill stick around
I cant blame Lauren, if we use fanfiction as an analogy she was a writer someone comissioned to do a story and was given creative freedom, then it went mega popular beyond beliefe and the commissioned wanted another. But this time he had demands.
"Those two unique creatures you have in your story? Yeah add another one, make her the babysitter of our main character and the fiancee of the mc's brother, oh yeah she has a brother thats the most important thing to her, almost forgot to mention that"
Faust doesnt own mlp, so even if she fought them on every step until they fired her the show would go on.
Ill give gen 5 a try, if done right it could be good. But ugh earth pony twilight... And i imagine there wont be a Celestia, that just makes me sad if that will be the case...
Well, at least partly; it had a few more questionable elements than usual. For instance, depicting Nightmare Moon's reign of terror as lasting a few minutes struck me as a retroactive weakening of the concept of her corruption, and the potential for Tirek's backstory and the Equestria Games feels largely squandered.
It also introduced some fresh character dynamics. It's the only time, for instance, when I could at least sort of get along with the idea of Discord being on the ponies' side now, if only as a passive-aggressive jerk no one likes. And I quite liked the big feeling of the Equestria Games arc, the way they quite amusingly minimized Twilight's princesshood at times, and the little details like the Wonderbolt history, Manehattan's expansion, Fluttershy's joining a conservation society and Pinkie possibly being an Apple relative.
Lastly, I also credit it with a fair attempt at an overarching storyline, which if it didn't pan out as I'd hoped was at least an interesting experiment. So yeah, I quite enjoyed Season Four.
4751205
Strongly agree with the sentiment, if not necessarily the detail (my pick of favourites out of the main cast is quite different from yours in many respects). The show could up and die tomorrow, and I will still come back to these wonderful characters for a long time yet. It was they who ultimately won me over.
I think it really is that the creators are trying new things with the show, and I personally don't see eye-to-eye with them on several. No matter: the canonicity of this and that doesn't bother me anymore. To me, that's what the AU tag is ideally designed for, and it's one of the joys of writing fanfiction to reinvent the show's world and reposition its cast and then let them loose. While I still pick and mix ideas from the show, ever since Season Five I've never felt bound to do so. It's inspiration, not gospel.
As for the quality drop... I'll largely agree that I think it has declined, with the caveat that I'd still gladly bunch Seasons One, Two, Four, and Five together as a collective triumph, along with bits of Season Three and Season Six (I haven't watched Season Seven). So I can't say I mind all that much if the show continues said decline. It was time well spent, as far as I'm concerned, and I intend to keep going back to what I do like about it.
Would be interesting to see what the next generation will be, at least academically.
4751361
Well, I'm not clear if it's permitted to repeat the info here. If you're interested, you can hop over to 4chan's /mlp/ to get the details. It doesn't appear that anything's final, but if those are the ideas they're spitballing for ol' Applepone, it's not looking good.
4751369
AJ is... honestly, the only one who looks greatly different. The rest just look like stylized and altered-species versions of G4, although there is no way in heck these designs will survive to the animating process.
Whatever the discussion, I think the concept for AJ looks *more* country than the G4 girl. Just instead of a rough western farmer she comes off as a genteel southern waif
who's slaves do all the work while she fixes her hair.Both mane and tail are unpractical, and the braid and flowers are excessive fluff.I will, however, concede that her coloration is not half-bad. I liked the leaked idea to make her from a hardscrabble upbringing, making her scrappy and a bit bitter against the others. But I sure don't get those vibes from the concept art.
4751396
Per the blog post from knighty, discussion is okay.
I found the thread and a few of the leaks myself. As noted below, I do see some hope for the AJ concepts, both in appearance and style. It just won't be the same...
4751227
Sorry if my response was hostile. I've dealt with people telling me I'm just nostalgia blind for 5 years now. I didn't like the later half of S3. Even TMPP (my fave episode) felt like it fell short (like Pinkie Keen does.) S4 and EqG combined to make me realize I wasn't having fun.
Any time I have ever tried to have a conversation about either of these things, someone decides that I'm a threat to their existence. It's one reason I stopped doing the fandom for 4-5 years.
Alright. You don't have to yell at me PP. I made my post.
So Present. I agree with you on a number of points. I don't and never have blamed Lauren for stepping down. I have a non-creative job and my kids still nearly killed me. I get home from work, and I can't do shit writing wise. I get done with a Saturday spent with the kids, and I'm lucky if I can be creative enough to make wingboner jokes. I understand leaving even if Hasbro wasn't putting pressure to do stupid things. This is about the only part of the rant I disagree with you on.
For me, the show died in season 4. And I can point to the episode. It's Bats. Bats confirmed that there really isn't anyone with a clear vision of what FIM is or where it's going. The quality of the core plot, the writing, and even the song call into question how much anyone even gives a damn about creating a great show. This was hot on the heels of S3, mind, and one of my other bottom five episodes: Magic Duel. I've explained that one a dozen times, but for anyone else's benefit the TLDR is that Boast Busters has Trixie as a walking personification of every one of Twilight's insecurities about herself and how she is viewed by all the
magicless mudhorsesponies in Ponyville. Magic Duel took Twilight's id and removed the reflection on Twilight.So, for me, the thing that brought me back was episodes like Saddle Row Review and Secrets and Pies. I get that not everyone loves character-driven slice of life. I understand it completely. But it's what I fell in love with back in S1, and it's what I still want to see more of. I don't necessarily mind plot-driven episodes on occasion, or character driven adventures (Find a Pet being the closest thing I can think of off the top of my head,) but Look Before You Sleep and Party of One are still the kinda thing I want to see more of.
I'll also say that I'm very, very put off on all the fucking Glimmer&friends episodes they've had lately. Glimmer can fucking die in a fire. Maud is a one-joke pony who outlived her value as comedy before her episode was even over. Since she has no personality, there's no real reason to use her for anything except replacing Applejack as the one who's stoic. Sunburst... no. If I want to be a punchline, I'll watch Big Bang Theory. Trixie? Well, I kinda posted my thoughts on Trixie above. That said, Trixie and Discord carried To Where and Back Again. They have a very good back and forth. And then they had it in s7e1. And... what?
I'm annoyed as fuck that new, frankly boring, characters are getting center stage while Rainbow Dash shows up to declare something is "awesome" and Pinkie shows up to throw confetti. There's always been issues with non-central characters being somewhat flanderized, but it *seems* worse to me. Maybe it's not. It could just be that with all the new characters to take center stage, the mane6 are more often in the position to be non-main characters. Maybe it's the Cutie Map and the lazy ass story telling it allows. Maybe it's the fanfiction community maturing and the weight of so many more interesting fan works to be compared to. Or maybe Rainbow Dash is a wonderbolt and it's only brought up in episodes about the wonderbolts.
I agree with the old PP vs S6 post and I still firmly believe my own S5e26 conclusion: Glimmer never got a redemption. She just got to be everyone's friend suddenly. Maybe if she had gotten a good redemption, I'd be able to stand her and just call Every Little Thing a giant shitpile of OoC ponypoop. As it stands, I can't, because that is who she is.
That's a lot of words to say make Glimmer the new Mare in the Moon and let's get back to stories about the mane 6. And that's a roundabout way to me saying I don't like the ideas behind newer seasons as much and wish we had more S1/2 type stuff.
As for G4 ending and being happy/sad about it... I've mixed feelings. For me, it almost kinda ended with Twilight sprouting wings. That's a definite turning point in the show and a very clear visual reminder. I'll be sad when the show ends, because we won't ever have more amazing canon or new interactions to play with. At the same time, you either die a hero or meme...
As for G5...
Applejack's design is fucking ugly. Holy shit. Fluttershy, according to my wife, will trip over her own mane. And Twilight as a mudhorse... Well. Fuck that shit. I don't have super strong feelings about anything else I've read. The character stuff has convinced me it's best to see it as completely unrelated to FiM. It will have nothing in common but some trademarked names. It's like ToS vs the Star Trek reboot. Maybe some people will love it. Some people will never move past FiM. Some will like both. But I doubt there will be anything like the explosion there was for FiM. FiM was magic and unexpected and almost certainly a lightning bolt or (to use a venture capital term) unicorn. I do not expect G5 to succeed amongst the "alternate demographic."
I am not going to shit too hard on it, since it doesn't exist, but I have little expectation. I do hope that I'll be pleasantly surprised by G5 and S8. I hope something makes me at least like Glimmer enough that I no longer wish to do something else instead of watch her. I hope for a lot of things.
G4 gets the ultimate 10th anniversary: Being cancelled.
I feel you on a lot of this PP, season five pretty much knocked me out of my "brony phase," which is both good and bad in ways. It let me move on to other things, but at the same time I wish I could experience those magical S1 and S2 days again. I don't think anything will replicate how it was to be active in the fandom and watching the show back then. At this point, I just want to catch up to the show so I can ride it out to the finish line and wrap up the G4 experience.
4751217
Yeah, I read through that email and it's amazing how out of touch they are with what the fandom likes, and they hate AJ. Just hate her. It's incredible.
4751177
Can I elect to blame Dave Polsky instead?
Polsky might not have had as much straight-up power as McCarthy did, but he's a writer who has both stuck on throughout the entirety of the series and who, as far as I know, has entirely failed to write entertaining episodes, much less ones that fit with the show themes. His character direction, for one thing, is detached enough from established characterization that it constantly gives me the impression that he's either never watched an episode of the show or gets laser-guided amnesia after every episode; whichever the case, it seems like he writes plot-centric characters by looking up three or four different tropes at random for whichever ponies he's writing about, going "eh, close enough" and scribbling out the rest before noon so that he can avoid the lines at his local Qdoba. Then the nonsensicality of the characters gets compounded by unfocused plots which wander around all over the place, occasionally switch morals mid-stream and end up without any cohesion, meaningful moral lesson or reason to care about what actually happened in the last twenty minutes.
They aren't even "bad" as much as they are "generic," like they could have been written for any other cartoon for this age demographic. And it wouldn't have been that much of a problem if it weren't for the fact that he's consistently been assigned to episodes that feel like they're important to Hasbro's bottom line. Want a big look into how the Crystal Empire works? "Games Ponies Play" is how he advertised it, in all of its pandering and unimaginative tedium. Excited about Daring Do becoming part of the show canon? "Daring Don't" is happy to dispel your enthusiasm. Think the Wonderbolts could use more love? He's happy to spark discussion by writing "Newbie Dash" and sending the adult fanbase into screaming shitfights with each other. Want to know how the show would look with a beefed-up CGI budget? Spike At Your Service certainly delivered, didn't it? And so it went, as Hasbro collected money off of Crystal Empire playsets, Daring Do and Wonderbolts figures, etc. from content that never really felt like it was trying to do more than meet a contractual obligation.
Even if Polsky was forcefully crammed into the writing staff via Hasbro contract, I'd still put blame on whoever had the ability to tell him "Hey, did you want to talk about this episode you're writing over lunch? There were a few things I wanted to comment on, since I feel like if you touched up this section a little it could really bring out the best in this episode," but didn't. Because, as a result, we got a significant amount of episodes every season that felt like they were phoned in, dead bits of animation that sucked a little more of the magic out of their show with their passing. It becomes harder and harder to trust that a merchandise-driven show that (allegedly) wants its audience to feel actual emotions and get invested in its world when it keeps offering inevitable little signs that, no, it doesn't actually care if you liked it or not, you're still gonna buy the merchandise anyway, so who cares?
And yeah, I'll admit that he's not as flat-out terrible at writing as Merriwether Williams, but she's been mercifully missing for three seasons, whereas Polsky has stuck around this whole time like a bad canker sore.
4751416
I understand completely. Everyone’s all up in arms about who likes the show and what’s the right way to like the show and people start taking sides and making hate groups that no one really takes the time to reflect that anyone can watch the show the way that they want. No hard feelings.
I just have to comment that it feels weird on an existential level when people make declarations concerning Starlight like that, because having myself been a toxic waste of a human being in the past before being given a second chance and slowly learning how to function in normal society with mixed results, she happens to be the character I most identify with.
That last bit isn’t denying how you feel about the character within the context of the MLP universe, I just had to get that out before it festered into something unpleasant and I took it out on someone else down the line like 3 weeks later at work or on my roommate.
…oh my god, that’s be hilarious.