I mean, the content has a tendency to simplify its moral lessons a bit, and in general the cuteness of the series as a whole sort of excludes the darker possibilities in storytelling, but outside of that I don't really see too many objective flaws. Even those two things aren't necessarily flaws unless you're looking for something like that, although I would say that most people look for maturity of theme as well as complex messages in a finished work of art, and so those two fronts would be the only general flaws. Everything else is probably opinion-based.
Not too much, considering the fact it's still technically a show for kids, who don't care about the technicalities of mlp. I guess the show kinda strayed away from it's original vibe, the moral lessons aren't very compelling anymore. The CMC imo has sorta been stretched too far, how many times are they going to learn a "lesson"? They just go back to doing dumb things in their next episode. Just give them cutie marks already
It has the same flaws of any story with multiple writers. Every writer has their own vision of the characters, and occasionally that vision is at odds with the other writers. So, we end up with the characters acting out of character sometimes. The biggest example I can think of is Rainbow Dash. She's proud, she's aggressive, and she's extremely competitive. It's hard to write for a character like that and not have her come off as a total b*tch. It's a challenge that many writers fail.
By your own standards. By my standards, the show has improved with each season. Maybe you're the one that's changed?
Same, each season gets worse for me, I feel like they pander too much to bronies, season 1 felt like it's what the writers and Faust really wanted, not being influenced by old men.
I feel like nowadays the show is trying too hard to be some epic, plot driven adventure while balancing out the Slice Of Life stuff. The "Epic" episodes tend to be filled with writing flaws. IMO the show should just stick to Slice Of Life episodes and drop the adventure ones all together {For the record, Season 2 is my favorite season of the bunch}. Quite frankly I think fanfics handle Adventure stories far better then the show ever will. Also, Fluttershy's episodes tend to be way too samey for me. I can sum up a lot of them as "Fluttershy is shy and won't do something the others want to do, eventually overcomes it and learns a lesson about being assertive, and then it's all forgotten about in her next episode". I think this type of episode should have stopped after the excellent Hurricane Fluttershy, as opposed to being repeated into infinity.
It's a flaw to me, when Celestia is described as respected and competent person, but is actually more of a fool and helpless against any threat. When will we see, that she actually get things halfway done like Luna? Luna's line of "There is nothing my sister can do" or Celestia's failing against the Smooze just caps it all now.
Eh, they're are some that have flaws here and there. It's mostly when Spike is the main character in an episode. Can't stand the little guy. There's also a few episodes that are rushed in the end and deserve another part. For example, the season 5 finale kind of just ended when Starlight Glimmer was reformed and the other ponies accepted it just like that. Although, it did end with a song just to speed things up a bit. But still, the show is still good overall. Just some minor flaws that kind of ruin it for me. Don't mind him, he's just drunk. He'll be fine after awhile.
I just want to jump in and say that the argument that an episode would have been substantially better if it just had more time has always been deeply flawed. If an episode had a lot of problems originally, there's no reason to expect a second part to not be similarly flawed. People just imagine that a second part would be flawless and answer all the problems that the first part had, but if that were the case they would have just solved the problems originally or not had them to begin with. In fact in a lot of cases it isn't that there's a whole bunch of story that didn't get told, it's the opposite: There just wasn't a lot of story to begin with. Magical Mystery Cure was not pressed for time, they deliberately wasted more time than necessary during the episode because the whole story was less than ten minutes long. So adding another part wouldn't even make sense.
For a fandom that is built around acceptance, it's staggering how judgmental some bronies can be about a show for children. Some complain that the writing is too childish while others whine about the shout outs they throw in for older fans. It's like the finale when people said Starlight Glimmer was forgiven too quickly. I can't speak for anyone else but I would MUCH rather have the show teach kids forgiveness than to hold grudges. In my opinion, the fandom is just as flawed as the show some of its members just can't wait to criticize on Saturdays. The show is not perfect and that's OK. I love it even with its flaws.
The funny thing is that for a fandom built around acceptance, anyone expressing sentiment that the show isn't absolutely great, or has gone down in quality, is universally met with disdain, asked to leave, and in many places straight up banned.
I'm talking about flat out writer bashing and all of the disdainful comments made about the show. I don't mind someone saying that an episode didn't really click with them. There is a difference between that and saying that an episode is flat out stupid. That's when I really question what an adult "fan's" expectations for a children's show are. When someone makes the same "this episode sucked" and "the writers really screwed up" comments every single week, it gets annoying and doesn't garner a lot of respect. Least of all from me. I've been a HUGE advocate from the very beginning against writer bashing because it's not fair to compare a show called My Little Pony to something written at the level of Game of Thrones. It's like a middle school football team playing against the Panthers. You can't compare the 2. I'd just as soon focus on the aspects of an episode that I DO like even if I don't care for it as a whole.
That's funny to hear from someone who literally came into a thread for no other reason than to post an off-topic rant about people who don't share your opinion and how awful they are. Some people are judgmental about TV shows, you're judgmental about those people and you feel the need to vocalize it in places where no one asked. Not to mention you're basically insulting anyone who thinks the show is better than a stupid baby show that should be immune from all criticism because it's for babies. Go make your own thread about how everyone who doesn't agree with you are the worst.
I never thought I'd ever see anyone accusing Rockout of being unreasonable or irrational, but there it is. Huh.