My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic----It Doesn’t Deserve It’s Fanbase
I feel like based on the amount of traction that one post I made years ago about how I felt about the Changelings post-Season 6, I should finally clarify how I actually feel about the show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It's been almost three years since the show concluded, and in that time I came to a realization...
It doesn't deserve the community that was built around it, and I honestly feel like the fandom and even the IDW comics (of what little I know of them) took far better advantage of the world and characters.
Now I am heading into this argument on somewhat shaky legs, because I have never actually sat down and watched an entire episode of the show.
Why didn't I? Well to tell the truth it was fear. Whenever I thought of doing it, I would start suffering serious nervousness and second-hand embarrasment. I could never figure out why. After seeing how the series finale was handled, and then seeing where Hasbro was going with G5, I have my answer: I wouldn't be caught dead watching this Care Bears level cringe.
Most folks who love the show might say it was better than anyone expected a show attached to this toy line to be good since it was primarily targeted towards girls and yet it ended up having mass appeal. I wholeheartedly believe that Lauren Faust had a clear passionate vision for the series, but even in the beginning information came out that the final show did not always turn out how she wanted. Luna and Celestia should have been the only alicorns, Celestia was supposed to be a queen, etc. Faust claimed she wanted to create a show that challenged the perception that shows for girls tend to be low quality. One quote I remember being sourced from her was that in these shows characters could defeat villains by crying/smiling/something along these lines. The show's solution to this? Anti-climatic friendship kamehamehas. Like almost every villain was defeated this way, even in the Seasons that Faust was directly involved in. Sometimes the journey to get to the kamehamehas was different, but literally nothing else ever worked.
Even when the Elements of Harmony aren't directly involved, a friendship kamehameha ended up being the answer. Or, going directly against Faust's desire for her show, beating them via emotional speeches, LIKE STARLIGHT GLIMMER. And honestly, Starlight I was always on-and-off about. On one hand she felt like a replacement for Twilight for fans who absolutely despised her alicorn princess fate, and on the other she felt like a Filmore (the disney show) style character---a former foe/deliquent who is recruited by the good guys and that which leads to their redemption. Literally all the writers had to do was have Starlight initally punished/imprisoned for the nasty stuff she did in Season 5, and then have Twilight take pity on her and take her under her wing (literally). And I would've had no problems with that; the concept of a character like that is really cool to me. You could've also taken out two birds with one stone and use Starlight as an example for kids that anyone can change as long as they want to. To some extent though, Discord technically already fulfilled that role in Seasons 3 and 4 so I guess the writers' hands were tied here?
Twilight being an alicorn, in hindsight, was a huge mistep that I don't believe Faust would've ever been OK with if she was still there to do anything about it. Twilight was a nerd, a bookworm, an aspiring master wizard. Some skeptics would argue the only reason she became an alicorn princess was because it was a show for girls and girls wanna be pretty princesses. I argue it was mostly a case of main character syndrome, and how the "nowhere-to-go-but-up" mentality can ultimately screw up a character. Like...Goku is super-powerful, to an almost ridiculous degree, but Toriyama didn't make him the new King Kai, or the new freaking Omni-King? Luffy may eventually become the Pirate King, but he's not going to become King of the whole damn world! Naruto always wanted to become Hokage of his village, and he did, but that doesn't mean it would've made sense to make him like Grand Master of all Ninja Villages of the World??? Consequently, why in the hell did Twilight need to be turned into Chad Celestia (or Celestia 2.0)? Yeah sure she had leadership qualities but that doesn't qualify her to be a monarch of an entire country/kingdom. Even with the exsistence of the Council of Friendship, it was so obvious at the end that she was Celestia and Luna's replacement because hurr durr she main character. Was it because of other characters that became leaders of their "tribes" (Thorax, Ember, etc.)? Keep in mind, by the end of the series she had her own castle and school ON TOP OF CELESTIA'S CASTLE AND SCHOOL. Guys, this isn't an Elder Scrolls game where you can just keep piling on important titles onto your protagonist. From a narrative standpoint, I guess the writers just had no other places to take Twilight. They had her achieve basically all of her dreams at once (except the Master Wizard thing, because I don't think she was ever considered the next Starswirl, just a super powerful ball of magic), so what "shocking" developments could they have given her next? Ruling all of Equestria. Even taking into account that Faust apparently always intended Twilight to succeed Celestia in some fashion, I seriously doubt she intended to mutate her into Neo Celestia. You put her side by side by her friends, and she doesn't even look like one of them anymore, she sticks out like a sore thumb (doubly so in the future episode).
I do believe effort was placed in some of the humor and especially some of the non main characters, but almost all the characters post....Season 2 never got enough screentime to truly take advantage of the story potential. How many fans of Shining Armor like me were praying that he at least had an episode focusing on how he felt being the only non-alicorn royalty? Wouldn't anyone have loved an episode where Armor and Cadence got to meet the new changelings and really get to know Thorax and Pharynx and what not (or did Thorax's debut episode count as checking that box?)? Why did the Cutie Mark Crusaders (again the mere words "cutie mark" really make it near impossible to see anything in this world as genuinely dramatic) need to have nearly identical cuite marks? Even taking into account their "destines" to help other kids find their talents, you didn't have to make them homogenous from a design standpoint to do so. Meh, but they got more than others did. Cadence I loved more as a potential cool character, but they never developed her enough even when she had so much more screentime in later seasons. Her infant daughter who couldn't even talk got more development. Flurry being born an alicorn felt like a kick in the gonads to fans that wanted an alicorn Shining Armor. Like wow his daughter gets to be born one, but he doesn't even get the honor of proving himself worthy? Spike getting wings doesn't count because he's a dragon and that was an obvious leap in intuition. Speaking of Spike, he's one of the more developed non-main characters (although to some he's the Butters of this show, the unofficial extra main character) but even he got done a little dirty. I say a little because his crush on Rarity never went anywhere, it was just one-note comic relief, and they only ever talk about what it was like to grow up with Shining Armor and Twilight in the final season. That little moment where he wins the Sibling Supreme crown and they tell him he's the little brother they've always had? Awesome, yes, more of that please. Also his future self looks like a freaking Chad. Like why did they give him a buff body type that wasn't too far removed from how he fantasized about himself? I've heard some theories as to why but I don't really agree with them.
Celestia is a strange case to me because I was glad to see more of her personality show in the later seasons, but you could also argue that she was made to be more like Twilight (and maybe they did that to try and convince fans that it was totally a natural evolution for Twilight to become like Celestia because they're so alike yo!). I know Faust always intended her to be somewhat mysterious and now I can't help but feel like the writers went against that idea. Luna was always a favorite of mine, and they handled her very well when they did focus on her, I don't have too many complaints there. Honestly, the characters that weren't given much development could've gotten plenty, because they managed to do exactly that with Sunburst in Season 6. One two part episode, and he automatically became one of the more interesting side characters. Heck, I'd even argue Maude from Season 4 gets this honor even if parts of her are the generic "stoic misfit". Pharynx I think was handled pretty well in Season 7 as well, for someone who only ever mattered in one episode (again they could've done so much more with him).
I remember thinking that the movie that came out in 2017 could've been like The Lego Movie of little girl's cartoons if they played their cards right, but even just based on interviews the creators clearly were not concerned about doing anything interesting.
Equestria Girls should've never been a thing, and kind of went against the whole point of the franchise not being so stereotypically girly girly. I mean jeez the main series still had the balls to lampoon the whole "we totally aren't like those girly girl generic shows" on occasion (like in Rainbow Dash's nightmare) but like....you have a concept called "cutie marks", hearts decorate almost every piece of architecture, the main character was made a princess for no real reason, the highest authorities are princesses and not queens "because queens are evil bad guys", your theme song is like something out of a generic Disney TV special, and your heroes never get to actually directly fight and win against the villians.
Powerpuff Girls literally did the whole "girly show that's actually bad ass and funny" thing years before you (of which Mrs. Faust was a writer, and it's being revived with original creator on the helm so yay!)....
I can't help but think that the show being inherently connected to a franchise called My Little Pony, and therefore being the first part of the title, the first thing people think of when they think of this show, ruined a lot of it's chances of being taken more seriously. You hear that title and you cannot distance it from literally the most generic girly girl stuff you can ever think of. You remember that's the franchise this is connected to, and you think of all the attempts FiM made to be like one of the "good shows" with "actual stories worth telling" just not meshing well. Was the show Dead on Arrival? Clearly not if so many folks of all walks of life saw something in it worth salvaging.
All the other shows of FiM's generation, even the PG ones that kids of the same age group shouldn't techincally be watching unsupervised but many many kids did, Regular Show, Adventure Time, freaking Gumball, Steven Universe. These shows had far more intricate characters and lore, had more interesting styles, and told far more interesting stories that went beyond generic Aesops. Again, even taking into account the PG rating of most of these, GUMBALL, a show that while on occasion dabbles into the juvenile, was also still able to tell interesting stories with decent lessons behind them AND they also had more thought out humor. Even companies as conservative as Disney are willing to let Gravity Falls and Star vs the Forces of Evil get through. HELL, HASBRO THEMSELVES let at least 90% of the Transformers television shows, with their interesting stories and characters, be released.
I always believed that Friendship is Magic could've been a Transformers level franchise, but for mostly young girls. It could've had more developed characters, better action, and genuinely bad-ass moments. It could've been Powerpuff Girls with more story, or simply Samurai Jack for a new generation. Unfortuantely, I guess it wasn't meant to be.
It still hurts when I think of something that was born from one person's passion become what it became and how it could've truly landed among the stars. I still don't know, almost three years after the Finale, if i'm better off completely ignoring it, or simply indulging in the fan content that continues to come out to this day.
I do know, however, that G5 will not be a true successor to FiM like the fandom deserves. Literally in the very first story, the main character became an alicorn. Wait 8 more years, and they'll make her ruler of the entire world. That's how little faith I have in the people attached to this franchise. Hasbro even killed FiM in the IDW comics to completely focus on G5.
If you have a love for FiM despite it's failures, I'm glad and I would never try to take that from you even if I can't see it. I personally would love to create a show with a similar style, even though I've got a long way to go in the field I'm trying to get into now. The things that I appreciated about FiM, as few as they turned out to be, continue to inspire me like the many other stories I've come across over the years. I hope someone inspired by FiM can come along and succeed where it failed. Ultimately though, we have no choice but to wait and find out.