My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

In this thread, talk about MLP related things. Do you love ponies as I do? Are you eagerly awaiting the recently confirmed theatrical release of the movie due October 2017? Or do you absolutely hate ponies with every fiber of your being? This thread invites all schools of thought on the franchise of My Little Pony (specifically the fourth generation; AKA Friendship is Magic)

Aww, no pony fans here? Q.Q

Quote from BlazingBarrager

Honestly, unless they actually take the time to WATCH at least a few minutes they have nothing to gripe about. That's what I did. Three episodes, and then I was done. It was alright and had its humorous moments, but again it wasn't something I'd be interested in.

The show has vastly fluctuating episodic quality. Even as a huge fan of ponies myself, I have to admit that nearly every episode of season 2 (save for a select few that really pushed the boundaries) was full of extremely cringe-worthy "attempts" at jokes and one-liners.

Those aforementioned outliers of Season 2 are some of the best of the entire series, however. Episodes like Return of Harmony Parts 1&2, Sisterhooves Social, Family Appreciation Day, and Hurricane Fluttershy are true testaments to the quality the show is capable of reaching. After watching an episode like Cutie Pox, Mysterious Mare Do-Well, or Baby Cakes (which take place within the same season, mind you) you may find yourself wanting to end your own life xD. Personally, there were 2 episodes I watched that almost made me quit the series. The first was Boast Busters of season 1, and the previously mentioned Baby Cakes of season 2. This is of course, not to say that there exist no other episodes further down the line which astonished at how inconceivably BAD the writing could get, but at that point, I had already witnessed just how GOOD episodes could get too.

If you really wanna see just how AMAZING this show can get, I would highly recommend the following episodes: Twilight's Kingdom Parts1&2, Magic Duel, Bloom & Gloom, The Cutie Map, and The Cutie Remark Parts 1&2.

^These are all episodes that a newcomer to the series can enjoy just as much as a person who has watched every episode. Many other amazing episodes reward long time viewers by incorporating tons of character progression, interconnected world building, and flashbacks to important events several thousand years in the past.

Here's a little snippet from Twilight's Kingdom part 2 for the forums's collective pleasure

On top of awesome character development, rich lore, and witty writing, the show also offers some of the best character songs of any television show I can think of.

^Both of these songs are from normal everyday episodes btw. No season specials here.

Something I've noticed is, during season 1, the series was very relaxed. Character interactions felt genuine, and mostly everything was very low on the scale of "importance". In season 2, the writers were fully aware of the older demographic the show attracted, and became obsessed with catering to them almost exclusively. The fan pandering was duly noted by the fandom, however, and most fans felt the series lost its innocence as well as its genuineness, as did I. Not only had everything become tryhard and over-the-top, but they did a BAD job implementing these risky ideas as well.

After the show came back from hiatus, season 3 seemed like a return to form for the series. There was much less cringe-worthy nonsense, and character interactions didn't feel quite as forced. The animation quality got a bump, as it did in season 2 (the 2nd season's bump was really more in regard to new vector animations and facial expressions for the each of the characters, while season 3's concentrated more on diversifying the color palette, as well as smoothing out said animations). All this was great, of course, however, season 3 was only 13 episodes long, which led many to fear the series may have been on its way out.

To fill the large gap between season 3 and 4, Dhx (the studio behind MLP: FIM) created a new IP based on the MLP universe"Equestria Girls". It was clearly a marketing ploy by Hasbro in order to get their dwindling delicious loli demographic to buy more toys, since, in Equestria Girls all the main characters are transformed into high school girls (besides Spike ofc. He gets demoted to a dog lol), and lets be honest, what's more marketable to little girls than cute Barbie doll-esque characters they can dress up? So yeah, it was supposedly non-canonical to the main series, but that didn't stop bronies the world over from threatening to commit suicide. *rolls eyes*

Equestria Girls was pretty fucking shitty. Thankfully they VASTLY improved upon the 2 sequels which came out years later.

Anyway, season 4 finally came to fruition, and right off the bat from the first episode, you could tell they were kicking things up a notch. The main characters started going through meticulous introspection, questions afraid to be asked in previous seasons were laid out in full, and over all things just started to get legitimately.... Good. I was kinda shocked, because, honestly the main reason I attached myself to this show in the beginning was merely because the characters were cute, and MLP was the PERFECT thing to troll people with online. I never actually expected it to become a quality cartoon able to compete with favorites of mine, such as Animaniacs, Samurai Jack, PowerPuff Girls, etc. Season 4 did a wonderful job of taking what season 3 set out to do, fully realizing it, and then expanding on it even further. Animation quality was improved upon once again, adding intense volumetric lighting effects which resulted in many beautiful set pieces strewn across the season. It was a full 26 episodes long, and concluded in such a way that I couldn't even conceive there being any way they could possibly follow up to it without being a disappointment....

...then came Season 5...

What can I say, even? There's nothing... no words can do this masterpiece justice...

-sigh- I suppose I must say SOMETHING, considering the friggin essay I wrote above >.>;
Season 5 made me question reality; how something of such magnanimous quality could even EXIST on television braodcasting utterly perplexed me. It made season 4 look like a joke in comparison. The best way to put it, would probably be (and this is complete speculation on my part) that DHX was planning on this being the final season of the show and they wanted every single idea, all those magnificent pipe dreams they WISHED could have been implemented earlier on, to be incorporated into the fifth season. Not only did they reach for the stars (an act which all but destroyed their credibility in season 2) but they took hold of them and lifted themselves through the stratosphere to never before seen heights of literary and cinematographic mastery!

They went places in this season... that you wouldn't expect them to even go NEAR in this kind of cartoon. And I'm saying even after watching the season 4 finale (ergo the one with that Dragonball-esque sequence I linked afore).

Season 6 followed shortly after, and it succeeded in meeting my expectations in nearly every way imaginable. While it "met" my expectations, it did not quite "shatter" them as season 4 and 5 had done in the past. I believe season 6 is perhaps a slight improvement over 4 in overall quality. One of the least interesting characters of season 5 (Starlight Glimmer) was fleshed out in an extremely satisfying way. I would go as far as to say, Starlight was by far the most enjoyable character to watch in season 6. This season also managed to pull off "fluidity" extremely well.

During season 6, there was another Equestria Girls movie released, and Jesus Christ was it bad. I was flabbergasted at the HUGE decrease in quality from the last two movies.... it makes me a bit worried for the 2017 movie tbh...

For those who are not "in the know" about all things MLP, There have been 4 movies up till this point, but all of them are technically non-canon. Every movie out so far have taken place in an alternate dimension wherein the ponies transform into normal human beings. With the 2017 movie, there will be none of this nonsense. Supposedly it will be a full length feature film (2-ish hours), whereas the previous EQG movies were around 40 min - an hour.

Quote from sorahicks231

Its got some really cringy moments in some of the scenes and I faceplam it a few times.

Those cringy moments are extremely prominent in season 2. The first season had very few iirc. Season 3 had a few here and there. Season 4-6 seem to have eliminated almost all of these scenes, generally replacing them with genuinely funny dialogue.

Season 5 & 6 have been particularly sharp in terms of humour. I am very glad to see the writers' talents flourishing

^This discourse within the first 2 min of the above video provides a good example of what I am referring to

Quote from B4.DA.$$

HAH!
I don't fantasize about ponies...only WOODY!

Though some people told me that this show is quite OP, like a +15 SK sitting in Plat waiting for some to him so he can Slap them to death with his axe!

Not gonna lie, some people try to blow it out of proportion, like its the single greatest cartoon of all time. This cartoon is not a 10/10 by any means. Here's a chart I made a few months ago to try and communicate a visual representation of the inherent quality the show possesses:

Quote from adrian on fire

I think....nvm :ddizzy:

As I stated in my OP, all schools of thought are permitted in this thread in regard to the subject of MLP. Do not feel inhibited from expressing a negative opinion of the show

I'm surprised that no one has complained about me posting this in the "anime" section yet xD

Quote from JackalPT

IDK, I never watched it

How have you never watched this show with people online never shutting up about it for the past 7 YEARS!? o.0

I could recommend episodes to you, but I feel like if you haven't watched it at this point, you never will lol

Quote from JackalPT

I figure most people wouldn't want to talk about this where everyone can hear them xD

^Where everyone can hear them? Even under the guise of anonymity? I would think the internet would facilitate this type of discussion instead of inhibit it :O