MLP Season 4 thoughts.

[Divine Retribution]

S4 was the season that actually made me like the show. From what I've seen so far, I rank them S4>S2>S3>S1, and I truly believe that S1 has way too many people looking at it with rose tinted glasses. So many substandard episodes and I can't think of a single one that I'd describe as being great.

And as for Equestria Games, it's one of my favourite episodes. Having an episode based on the games themselves would have either come down to a retread of Rainbow Falls in yet another friends vs glory thing for Rainbow Dash or an unfocused mess that focuses more in frivolous things such as medal counts instead of the characters.

 

[Roxor]

Short seasons aren't a bad thing. A lot of the best shows I've got sitting around on my hard drive have entire runs which are just a couple of dozen episodes. In fact, I'll say there's a problem with long seasons: viewer fatigue. It's hard to keep up with new episodes coming in every week, and even worse, people talking about them. After three months, I just want a break, which is why I think 13 episodes is the longest any season should go for.

When a show has a running length of 26 episodes traditionally, and then gets cut down to half that, it's going to suffer. Condensing the format where all the people working on it from writers to animators, sound guys to producers/directors have to change their approach, aspects are going to suffer.

If the show was heavily focussed on a continuing story, I'd agree that halving the season length would hurt it. If it's largely self-contained stories, like this one, it's an opportunity to toss out the worst half and focus on making what's left as good as possible.

The show has shown it can fill a season of 26 episodes with great content. Season 2 and 4 are the shining examples of this. So that's no problem.

I wholeheartedly disagree about season 2. That season was one long slog of crap. That combined with a couple of absolutely terrible episodes (Lesson Zero and A Friend In Deed) made me throw in the towel three quarters of the way through.

Keeping up with new episodes is a personal thing. Keeping up with people talking about it is even more so. Nobody is obligated to do it. I didn't catch some of the episodes until way after they aired this season. The best thing about seasons like this is that they can be marathoned. When I first discovered the show I watched huge chunks of seasons back to back. I prefer long seasons. More time to develop things and more for me to enjoy. Part of the reason I'm sour on movies has to do with short length.

It's funny, if I get hooked on a new show, I'll run through the available episodes in a couple of big blocks, but I tend to wind up watching movies in bits. A half-hour here, twenty minutes there, leaving the playback program paused in the meantime.

As for predictability. It's been predictable since season 1, the very beginning. It's always had standard fair little girl premises. Sleepover episode, dress making episode, fashion show episode, dance party episode. Standard fair for girl cartoons. Nobody comes to MLP for premises that blaze new trails.

I didn't find season 1 predictable. It was all new to me. A large chunk of what I saw of season 2, however, had me going "Alright, we get it, X is going to happen!"

 

[EternallyBored]

I didn't find season 1 predictable. It was all new to me. A large chunk of what I saw of season 2, however, had me going "Alright, we get it, X is going to happen!"

Eh, nothing in the show has really surprised me except maybe chrysalis, and even then, the surprise was more with the whole love sucking shapshifter thing rather than the fake cadance turning out to be actually evil.

I am curious what you found so new about the season 1 episodes, because as far as subverting expectations, I would say season 2 did a much better job, I can't think of a single season 1 episode that I didn't see coming after the first 5 minutes, the pop culture gags were a nice touch, and the songs were good, but the plots are pretty standard children's t.v. fare.

The sleepover episode where two contentious characters learn to work together, the cliche sharing episode where the hero has an item everyone wants, the jealousy over being replaced episode where the jealous character tries to frame the other character for something they didn't do, the unrealistic expectations episode where everything becomes a comedy of errors, the fitting in episode where the character tries all the stuff they obviously aren't good at before the obvious answer presented at the beginning of the episode is realized by the main character (seriously the plot of winter wrapup was revealed before the opening title), and the "don't judge a book by its cover" episode where a character acts really suspicious and the plot clumsily tries to make them look like the initial judgement was right and totally turns out to be wrong at the very last second.

I dunno, maybe its working in a child centered setting where a lot of children's entertainment ends up playing on the lobby t.v., or maybe it's that Lauren Faust and her writers were borrowing pretty heavily from their previous shows (especially foster's home and Ed, Edd, and Eddy, which I really like), but season 1 of MLP was pretty standard children's television, most of my interest came from the fascinating mix of fantasy/ technology/ and mythology, while avoiding the cliche overused humans, dwarves, and elves that infest fantasy settings, and the interesting characters that were probably one of the strongest representations of an all female main cast I've ever seen in children's television to date.

Not that I'm judging you, there's something special about the first season of any good show that later seasons can never replicate because you can't introduce the same beloved characters twice.

 

[Veylon]

I felt Season 4 had a lot of wasted potential. There was a big build up to the Equestria Games...except nothing was done with them. Twilight was made a Princess in Season 3 and...almost nothing was done with that either. The mystery box contained the most obvious thing possible. The writers continue to have no idea what to do with any of the mythology or settings that have been created. They really have no idea what to do with Celestia or Luna, except have them conveniently taken out of action. Someone somewhere has to take a good long look at all this lore that's been built up and slap some sense into it.

But first I need to talk about Pinkie Pie. I never liked Pinkie Pie. Or at least not as much as any of the others. But now whatever few positive qualities she had have been utterly stripped away. She's just annoying and random and foolish. She used to be random and (seemingly) foolish (and sometimes annoying), but it was a side effect of her desire to cheer up others and her unorthodox thinking. That's been lost.

Moving on, more needed to be done to flesh out the how and why of Twilight's princesshood. A movie would've been ideal for this; Twilight's new role could be explored and by the end of it a new status quo would be established that could be picked up in the next season. Instead we got Equestria Girls. The opening two-parter could also have done this; instead we got a series of flashbacks that - while very cool - were ultimately pointless.

Really, a whole arc of Twilight needing to learn how to do Princessing has essentially been passed over.

Next up would be the Equestria Games. They would've made a good finale. And because I can't let the Princess thing go, they could even have tied the two together by having Twilight be put in charge of organizing them as her first big public role.

This would give a few different levels of stress to the whole thing. For one part, Twilight's terrified of screwing this big responsibility up in front of her idol. Some of her friends - probably Rainbow and AJ - are hoping to win medals. Others will be there to help, for opportunities to show off, or simply to enjoy the spectacle. There's an opportunity to bring back Gilda and Lightning Dust as rivals. It's a big event; it'll be inherently chaotic and unwieldly so there's no need to dredge up a villain to make trouble. Because this thing's being run by Twilight, Celestia and Luna will have a reason - other than being incapacitated - to step back and let her deal with things.

And this leads up to Celestia and Luna: they are given nothing to do. Well, Luna a little bit. The writers seem to feel that the only way for Twilight to shine is for the elder Princesses to be rendered useless. Why not have Twilight be the one who comes up with a plan, for once, and have them help her carry it out? That would show how much she's risen in their estimation. Or have Twilight & friends need to cover the Princesses' backs while they cast the must-not-be-interrupted Big Spell; it's the same effect as them being unavailable, but it doesn't come across as them being useless.

What's (maybe) worse is that they've been effectively written out of the show. While their appearances should be rare, it's now become an issue due to Twilight's new role and her need to access them regularly to learn how to do her job properly. There wasn't one Princess training episode this season. I am disappoint. I'd like to note, too, that Twilight leaving to go train is also an opportunity to kick her off the show whenever needed and an excuse for other characters to go with her and get up to shenanigans in Canterlot or wherever else training happens.

Season Four was kind of a mixed bag for me. I liked it more than Season 3, but it never really hit some of the best of 2. It had the feel of a season-long version of the Crystal Empire: darker, deeper stuff is brought in, is briefly epic, but then evaporates leaving what's left feeling poorer and weaker by comparison. It's not terrible - though it does have it's really stupid moments - but it feels unsatisfying. It needed an editor.

 

[Aaron Sylvester]

I disagree about the funny part. I got the occasional snort out of one of Twilight's lines, but that's as far as it got for me. There's humour in the show, yes, but it's not a funny show.

Of course it's not a "funny" show compared to something that is aiming for comedy...but it's all about standards, expectations and tone. Humor comes in many forms and light-hearted humor is some of my favorite. It's why in Avatar: The Last Airbender I found plenty of genuinely hilarious scenes even though that wasn't a "funny show" either.

By the time we reached S3 and S4 I was accustomed to the show/characters and everything became rather predictable.

Well for me Season 3 was definitely something that seemed to have most of it's heart and soul missing compared to S1+2. Perhaps it acts as a sharp border between S1+2 and S4 for me

Here are my favorite episodes from S1 and S2, in no particular order with reasons why I liked them:

Friendship Is Magic P1 + P2 - introduction to sheer adorableness
Boast Busters - Trixie, hell yeah
Bridle Gossip - one of the funniest episodes of all time
Suited For Success - Rarity the drama queen
Feeling Pinkie Keen - Pinkie at her best here
Sonic Rainboom - because sonic rainboom
A Dog and Pony Show - More Rarity drama
Green Isn't Your Color - Photo Finish, great episode
Party of One - Pinkie's depression and spiral into insanity
The Best Night Ever - solely for Fluttershy going nuts

The Return Of Harmony P1 + P2 - Discord, that is all.
Luna Eclipsed - Luna struggles to integrate back into society, funny times
The Mysterious Mare Do Well - this actually had me wondering who the mare was
Baby Cakes - this was just hands-down funny
Read It and Weep - RD stuck in hospital and starts reading, LOVE this episode
Hearts and Hooves Day - Cherrelie + Big Mac accidental love relationship
Putting Your Hoof Down - Iron Will was awesome
A Canterlot Wedding P1 + P2 - still my favorite finale

 

[Roxor]

I dunno, maybe its working in a child centered setting where a lot of children's entertainment ends up playing on the lobby t.v., or maybe it's that Lauren Faust and her writers were borrowing pretty heavily from their previous shows (especially foster's home and Ed, Edd, and Eddy, which I really like), but season 1 of MLP was pretty standard children's television, most of my interest came from the fascinating mix of fantasy/ technology/ and mythology, while avoiding the cliche overused humans, dwarves, and elves that infest fantasy settings, and the interesting characters that were probably one of the strongest representations of an all female main cast I've ever seen in children's television to date.

I think this is it. You found it predictable because you've seen a lot of stuff aimed at kids. I hadn't seen anything new aimed at kids in about twenty years (not to mention I didn't watch much TV as a kid to begin with). Season 1 probably introduced me to those various archetypes you listed, and once I'd been through that, it was too easy to spot them coming in season 2.

I disagree about the funny part. I got the occasional snort out of one of Twilight's lines, but that's as far as it got for me. There's humour in the show, yes, but it's not a funny show.

Of course it's not a "funny" show compared to something that is aiming for comedy...but it's all about standards, expectations and tone. Humor comes in many forms and light-hearted humor is some of my favorite. It's why in Avatar: The Last Airbender I found plenty of genuinely hilarious scenes even though that wasn't a "funny show" either.

I did notice a tendency of other people to say that scenes I thought were painful were hilarious. In fact, it happens so much that to me "hilarious" is a weasel word for "painful to watch".

By the time we reached S3 and S4 I was accustomed to the show/characters and everything became rather predictable.

Well for me Season 3 was definitely something that seemed to have most of it's heart and soul missing compared to S1+2. Perhaps it acts as a sharp border between S1+2 and S4 for me

Whoops! You messed up on the quoting. That was something I was quoting, not one of my lines.

I get the point you're trying to make about a dividing line, though. I just draw it after Return of Harmony, given I consider the crap to start with Lesson Zero and I haven't seen anything after Putting Your Hoof Down.

 

[EternallyBored]

I dunno, maybe its working in a child centered setting where a lot of children's entertainment ends up playing on the lobby t.v., or maybe it's that Lauren Faust and her writers were borrowing pretty heavily from their previous shows (especially foster's home and Ed, Edd, and Eddy, which I really like), but season 1 of MLP was pretty standard children's television, most of my interest came from the fascinating mix of fantasy/ technology/ and mythology, while avoiding the cliche overused humans, dwarves, and elves that infest fantasy settings, and the interesting characters that were probably one of the strongest representations of an all female main cast I've ever seen in children's television to date.

I think this is it. You found it predictable because you've seen a lot of stuff aimed at kids. I hadn't seen anything new aimed at kids in about twenty years (not to mention I didn't watch much TV as a kid to begin with). Season 1 probably introduced me to those various archetypes you listed, and once I'd been through that, it was too easy to spot them coming in season 2.

Yeah, I've seen a lot, and I mean A LOT of little kids shows (ages 3-8 target demographics) over the years, ranging from pretty dang good, to soul-crushingly bad, stuff that would be dumb if you showed it to toddlers, much less young children.

None of MLP's plots are really outside the norm for kids television, Season 1 hit pretty much all the same morality lessons that every other kids show with a morality theme hits, hell, quite a few of the episodes are very close plot wise to other series I've seen. I can understand why you'd lose interest fast if the only thing that was holding you were plot twists, because kids shows have been hitting the same stuff for decades now. Which, to be fair, there's really only so many ways you can tell kids that sharing is good, trust your friends, and don't set your expectations too high before you've basically run out of morality lessons.

Pretty much every morality based kids show runs into this problem, once you've boiled morality down to an easy to digest format, there's really only a couple dozen lessons you can cover before you start having to resort to variations on the same lessons you already covered, or get into strange or more complex themes that might fly over the audiences head. Which is why MLP has started interspersing more vague lessons or variations on earlier lessons into the plots, because they burned through the old tropes back in season 1 so they've been trying to keep it moralistic without specifically calling out the basic morality tales. That's probably why the letter writing mechanic has become much less frequent and changed into a more vague format.

MLP is kind of an odd duck, it was originally contracted for the usual 65 episodes to hit the syndication mark, a death knell for most kid's cartoons, as almost none will get picked up again after the show is syndicated, as most studios bank on kids being satisfied with just reruns for a couple years.

Girl targeted animation in particular has the 65 episode mark as almost a certain death sentence, and Hasbro is particularly infamous for killing shows that hit this mark so they can be rebooted with a new toy line (that's what recently killed the Transformers Prime series, one of the more popular animated Transformers series to air recently). MLP was not planned out or slatted with any sort of storyline or overarching plot in mind, I doubt any of the staff or producers actually planned for the show to survive past 65 episodes, so they are basically flailing in the dark at this point, especially considering that MLP is still primarily targeted at girls.

Outside of Japan, only one girl targeted cartoon show in roughly the same age demographic as MLP has ever made it past the 100 episode mark, if MLP makes it to season 6, it will officially be the longest running Western cartoon in its demographic bracket in animation history, hell, if it makes it to season 6 it will be competing with longer running Japanese counterparts like Sailor Moon.