Did MLP FiM improve after Season 2? The reason for this question is based on alot of factors. Mainly speaking in terms of Laurn Faust leaving the show and the things that came after. This video itself was posted right after Season 4 wrapped up. Though I find that this video has more relevance and poignancy now since we now have 9 Seasons of hindsight. So. After 9 seasons, do you think the shift after Season 2 improved MLP, made it stay relatively the same, or increasingly made it worse? Spoiler: My thoughts For me. I think the show, through and through, was pretty good even in the rough first 2 seasons. But I do think that things did improve for the most part after Season 2. There was some changes that made continuity the focus eventually, and plenty of character growth as the show went on. The notion that later seasons got cluttered with characters isn't a unfounded notion really. The result of that did make fleshing out of some characters like Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and Shining not happen for some time til near the end of the shows life. Though admitably those are more nitpicks than anything. I am glad Season 9 ended the way it did. And as bitter sweet as it maybe, I think we will see them again. Maybe not anytime soon, but I am glad all the same to of gotten to see the show and make the friends that I did because of it. I know this isn't as fleshed out opinion. But These are my general over all thoughts on the whole thing.
Hmm... I didn't vote, because to me it wasn't better or worse, it was different. There was a noticeable change when Lauren Faust's influence wasn't in the writing after season 2. It grew and changed as did we all. It went on for 9 years. It had to change to keep up with the world changing around it. My only nitpick is when new writers didn't do their research on the characters and they had some of them learn the same exact lesson they had learned 4 seasons ago. To me it wasn't running out of ideas, it was lazy writing and the producers should have shot down those episodes and had them rewritten. Other than that, I'm just happy I was able to watch and be along for the ride.
To me, it was worse. Season 3 was rushed and we can put the blame on marketing, because it was only a huge ad for princess twilight, season 4 was totally lost. They didn't know what to do after taking away relevance completely from twilight's friends. Season 5 was one of the worst due excess of fan pandering. The show completely lost its essence despite having the best plot driven season finale. The 6th season was a ray of hope, brought back some elements from the first two seasons and did fanpandering right. The seventh was a great season of seasons 1 and 2 tier. They managed to expand the lore and deliver some great episodes. Season 8 was the worst season. Agenda driven with forgetable episodes and 6 scrappies because inclusivity is hip. Season 9 was bittersweet. Bad to end the show, regular to low in general.
It had its ups and downs after season 2. Though after season 3 was when it definitely felt like the show had changed hands. While it has been a bit since I've actually sat down and watched the earlier seasons, I think I can say that I enjoyed the series as a whole. For me it was a comforting thing to watch. I didn't mind when Starlight was introduced because I liked the idea of having someone outside of the mane 6 have to learn lessons overtime. And hey, I kind of see it as bringing back Trixie and/or keeping her from being a throwaway villain for an episode. Likewise I didn't mind the students either. If I'm going to be honest though the one pony in that group could have been left out and nothing would have been lost. I don't blame the writers for wanting to expand a bit and introduce fresh things to work from. But there's still the "what if Faust had stayed on?" question but it's not one that I find to be very important. We could play "what ifs" all day but for all we know the show could have been worse just as easily as it could have been better. I will admit that the Discord cop-out in season 9 was a bit annoying though.
That's all rather reasonable. Though the what ifs and all do stem from the factor that Laurn Faust wanted to do more adventure based episodes, and less slice of life. Most speculate that if Laurn stayed on for season three and onward, that it would be practically almost nothing but adventure episodes, with much fewer slice of life for fleshing out characters. So the consurn that alot that made the first two seasons 'meh' in fan's books, would end up affecting season 3 and onward, isn't a surprising notion. Though Lauren could of did some great things too, who knows.
I think it did. It improved, but certainly changed so much so that as I recently found out it was changed in rating categories in the USA, from educational to entertainment. I feel like this change in tone is what really drives the "IT GOT WORSE", especially from the crowd that had stuck with the show through most of if not its entire run. While this isn't my opinion in its entirety, I do think that it explains the shift in tone with the new writers which I find leads to the idea that it somehow got worse. As for being bloated with characters, it only became that way to be once the 6 new students were introduced. I still don't really get why, as they don't seem to be forced there by marketing, and they were introduced far too late in the series to really have much impact or deep characterization. But that is really the only "big" example of the series being bloated with characters I can think of off the top of my head.
Huh. I didn't know about rating change, which is strange since the educational aspect was there. Though a chunk of episode's morals were aimed at teens/adults, more than children. Though I can see why the change in rating happened. Yeah. Those that were part of the series before G4 probably were more sensitive to the change after season two, than those who joined due to G4 and it's change up in the formula when it changed hands. Wondering how much of the was Faust, and how much was Hasbro on that. In any case, I was one of those that joined during G4, but I was mildly aware of the pre-established bronies. I just didn't know there were so many long standing ones til I joined the fandom. Yeah. Admitably it felt kinda bloated when the new 6 students came around. Though some of analyzers and reviewers of the show, I've come across at least, did start poking the bloated characters claim at the show before the last season. Namely in regards to characters that, most feel like, should of been flesh out more sooner. But got the short end of the stick because of random on and off side character focus. Namely the royal sisters, Cadence, and Shining. Yeah we did get some of that for them, though there is still alot of unrest on what could of been. Not to mention the rather apathetic response alot of bronies had to Flury Heart when she was teased.
The student six remain a point of contention for me, as I really enjoyed the idea of their characters but they were never that fleshed out or used after a few premier episodes and often in ways that felt incredibly forced, almost as if a situation was set up and contrived purely to make use of these characters they had introduced and not done anything with. As far as the show improving or not, I still stand by my opinion that it did change. You can feel a change in some underlying narrative currant as the show focused more towards Twilight slowly learning to take over, and more things occurring outside ponyville. The world in the show certainly started to feel a lot larger with the later episodes, even as season 3 remained almost entirely in ponyville.
I agree with you that the show seemed to evolve with Twilight and more of Equestria opened up as the spread of her influence grew. And It is a shame that the student 6 didn't get too much time to really flourish as characters. Especailly since I do see the potential there, it just was undercooked. Alot of that is most likely due to them being additions in the last season. Cozy honestly go more time in the spotlight and got more development. Though it was still minimal compared to antagonists before her.
