ColdGoldLazarus

I would rather a half-and-half cast; some familiar faces reimagined (Twilight Sparkle except she stays a unicorn this time, please) rubbing shoulders with either new creations, or older-gen characters who never showed up in FIM. (Firefly, perhaps?) Either way, though, what I'm concerned about is the setting. I liked Equestria well enough, but it became increasingly inconsistent the further the show went, and introduced a lot of cool concepts and locations without spending adequate time fleshing them out.

Despite what my signature says, right now my interest in and optimism for MLP is at an all-time low. Season 6 has been pretty solidly Meh so far, with the singular exception of Gauntlet Of Fire, and from what I've seen from EQG 4, it's not going to come close to Rainbow Rocks' level of quality. I want to feel hyped about the show again, I really do, but right now I really just... don't. Any suggestions on how to fix this? Or should I just let this go for the time being, and see how I'm feeling about things in a few months?

Twilight I don't mind, but Starlight seriously bugs me.

People we've seen before, because heaven forbid we see any new concepts introduced in a season finale. Personally, I'm more interested to see what kind of villain we'll be getting. The last one we got was Starlight at the beginning of S5.

It will. It won't matter if it's amazing or horrible or just solidly 'meh.' There is going to be a vocal group of fans who say the show is ruined forever because of the movie. Hopefully the movie will give me cause to disagee with them.

To be honest, I have some very mixed feelings about that. I was introduced to the show during the summer of 2011, after Season 1 had ended but several months before Season 2 began. When people refer to the heyday of the fandom, that's what I tend to think of, when the world of Equestria was still mostly unknown, when the fanart was detailed, the fanfics were like Lord Of The Rings, and the people were nice. Looking back on things now, I can see the fandom was... well, pretty far from perfect, but I didn't really come across the darker parts back then, and I still think the majority was pretty great at that time. I wasn't as present or involved, though, when Season 2 began to actually air, partially due to fade in interest, mostly due to school. When I came back into things a few weeks before A Canterlot Wedding aired, something had changed, but I was still having a great time. Chrysalis proved a most effective muse, and I was pretty prolific during that following summer as well. Then came Season 3, and things just kind of went downhill. A decline in the show quality with episodes like Spike At Your Service and Keep Calm And Flutter On, and of course the great Twilicorn flame wars Debate. I was starting to come up with some original concepts to boot, and despite Sunset Shimmer catching my interest, the first Equestria Girls was a pretty solid disappointment, compounded by a long hiatus. I've never had a particularly strong investment in the community aspect of the fandom (no offense) but the constant arguing still bred a pretty darn toxic atmosphere, and the fanfics which were my bread and butter were less enthralling. Season 4 was something of a return to form at first, but the overall zaniness turned me off after a while, and that horrible waste of time calling itself a Season finale was the straw that broke the Camel's back. I went through something of a 'midlife fandom crisis' at that point, and for better or for worse, have been able to distance myself from the show since then. That's not to say I've given up on it entirely, though I may have were it not for Rainbow Rocks. I don't think I need to tell anyone how fantastic that movie was, and it went a long way toward restoring my faith in DHX. Season 5 has somehow topped that, and with the amazingness of Amending Fences, is honestly the best season of the show yet, a relief after the stupider aspects of Season 4. I am honestly looking forward to Season 6 and the eventual theater movie; fingers crossed. But to answer your question, yes I do still miss the early days of the fandom. While I think the show is back on the right track again and I think I've personally matured a great deal by now, I am not so fond of the majority of the fandom in its present state, and to be perfectly frank, I just miss the days when Nightmare Moon was the one and only antagonist, when the mysterious Canterlot hadn't yet been supplanted by the obnoxiously gaudy Crystal Empire, when our interpretations of Equestria varied wildly but the tone of the various fanworks was consistently epic. (And part of me hopes that the upcoming movie can bring back that sort of feeling.) EDIT: Further musing on this, I think part of it (to me) is a matter of scale and specialization. Maybe it's hypocritical of me to lambast Twilight's Kingdom while praising a fanfic like The Empty Room or Within and Without, but I feel that the show writers' specialty lies mainly in the down-to-earth slice-of-life stories that stuck to Ponyville and the Everfree Forest, which mainly defined the first two seasons. And to be honest, I feel like the mere concept of the Crystal Empire is a huge mistake in a lot of ways, and undermines the more mysterious aspects of Canterlot. With a smaller, more ill-defined world in canon, it gives the impression of a very big world beyond the borders of what you know; the more of that you define, the more that feeling of mystery (and openness to interpretation) is diminished. As for the specific case of Twilight's Kingdom, part of my problem with that was in terms of the simple vibe of it. As many have observed, that felt like an episode of Dragonball Z, a show I've never been particularly fond of. That episode calls for heavy metal and edgy black and red, where the kind of 'epic' I'm thinking of is more the Peter Jackson or HP Lovecraft -esque style. That kind of thing wouldn't work well in most episodes of the show, but with the movie I think they have a chance to return to the kind of feeling that the series pilot brought us, opening with a book and the legend of two sisters. On some level, I think that initial lack of a strong status quo is what attracted me to give MLP G1 an honest shot during the latter half of 2013, as my enjoyment of FIM began to diminish. Idunno, maybe I'm just spouting nonsense. I can't really decipher what I just wrote, myself.

While I did vote for 'worse,' I wanted to clarify that I do not think the current show is bad by any means. (Honestly, I think there should be a few more options on the poll.) What it really comes down to is that Seasons 1 and 2 were a decidedly different show from Season 3 onwards, so comparing the two on equal ground is rather difficult. I refer to these two seperate eras as Fim and fiM, respectively, to highlight what I feel is the primary difference between the two. For under Lauren Faust, the emphasis of the show was on friendship. Small scale conflicts, strong character interactions, (Especially in Season 1, which I feel nothing that has followed has come close to matching up to in that regard) and the occasional monster made their appearances. The Season 1 finale, my favorite episode of the show to date, was a relatively simple affair that examined the concepts of dreams and expectations, while gleefully smashing several fairy-tale tropes to dust in the process. The animation seems downright bland when compared to something from Season 4, and it's fairly clear both in the production and the writing that the team was still finding their legs. Even Season 2 had these issues, yet though there were some things there I didn't like, (the shift away from Ensemble casts was my biggest gripe) It still had a pretty solid run of episodes, including It's About Time and A Canterlot Wedding, other favorites of mine. Under Meghan McCarthy, the show's emphasis shifted over to the magic part of the title. What began in A Canterlot Wedding continued in Season 3, as the stakes rose, the scale grew, and the history of Equestria got more exploration. (As an aside, I find it amusing how Starswirl The Bearded was originally this super-obscure wizard... then two seasons later, there's a whole renaissance festival/traveling museum dedicated to him.) But this also meant that the small-town charm and focus on characters was marginalized further still. While I don't feel I can fairly criticize Season 3 given the circumstances surrounding it, I've noted issues across the past two seasons. The Two-Parter adventures are almost too plot-driven, with characters either just being pulled along for the ride, or in the cases where their input is needed or even simply an option, they break character and/or make stupid decisions simply to make the plot develop in a certain direction. (This is particularly noticeable with Twilight's Kingdom, where everything was contrived to lead to her OMG SO EPICC!!!!!!!1!!! duel of brainless power with Tirek.) At the same time, the Slice-Of-Life episodes are imbued with a sense of purified mediocrity, and though I have several favorites, there are precisely two I can name off the top of my head where my praises didn't come packaged with several disclaimers or provisions. I may be unhappy with the direction the show is going, and I may be utterly disgusted with the mess of a finale known as Twilight's Kingdom, (this from someone who quite liked Equestria Girls) but that doesn't mean I am disappointed enough to denounce Meghan on the spot or try to leave the fandom. The show is different, and the show certainly isn't as good, but it's still a decent show, and one I will continue to watch. --- Whenever I think about the good old days of 2011, I suddenly feel like I'm some cranky old man yelling at you darn kids to get off my lawn.

This is what I'd been hoping for from Sunset Shimmer, but the leaked photos pretty much tore that theory apart. Ironically, while everyone else is saying that maybe EQG will be cool after all, my opinion hs gone from "cautious optimism" to "incredibly disgruntled."

Mmm, that could be interesting. Of course, it would likely lead to accusations of Recycled: In SPACE! but I'd still watch if I had reason to beleive they could pull it off well.

Well, there are two ways I could see a potential G5 going. Either Hasbro decides to play it safe and reboot G4, akin to the way Transformers and Star Trek have, with a "start over from the beginning" philosophy. (To those saying G5 should be a continuation of G4, the problem with your logic is that it would still pretty much be G4, even if the art style and toys change.) If that happened, I guess I'd give it a shot, but it would likely have an even harder time living up to FIM than the other option. Still, I know there are some episodes and storylines I'd be interested in seeing if they could improve with a second go-through. (Or in the case of KCAFO, erased entirely.) The other option would be for them to introduce a whole new setting with new characters. This would arguably be just as risky, but would be a smart move in at least one regard, as it would make it harder for people to critisize it simply through comparison to FIM. (For Tropers, see They Changed It, Now It Sucks and It's The Same, Now It Sucks) On the other hand, the disadvantage is that without being able to lean on FIM as heavily, it would need to be able to stand up in it's own right. Either way, it's going to be a hard sell. Still, I personally hope this is what they go with, as it would open things up considerably, give them a chance to experiment and try out some ideas or themes that simply wouldn't go in FIM. This could be good or bad, but if it's good, it could be really good. Thematically speaking, I'd hope for much the same as FIM; not being as simple-minded as G3 and 3.5, but neither would I want it to go all edgy and grimdark. I wouldn't mind if they perhaps allowed themselves to go a bit darker, (Think Disney) as it could allow for some more complex conflicts and characterizations, but I definitely don't want to see my little ponies going anywhere near some of the stuff like Warhammer 40K or whatever. Just... no. Visually, I'd like to see something more akin to some of the classic disney films; more detail, more cinematic presentation, and more art-like. Of course that animation style had it's own flaws sometimes (watch nearly any 80's cartoon and you'd see what I mean) but that wouldn't have to be a problem if they pull it off right; keeping the good while disposing of the bad. And if they do CGI or Anime, Celestia help me... One other thing I'd like to see? Television Serials. While a single-episode-per-plot thing works sometimes, it just as often does not, especially when the episodes are only twenty minutes long. Either give MLP longer running times, or else spread the story out over the course of as many episodes as you need in order to tell the tale properly.

Visually speaking, I'd hope for the pony designs to go mostly unchanged (Maybe a bit taller and more graceful, Fleur-De-Lis style) but for the animation to return to a more traditional style instead of flash. Or maybe still flash, but emulating a more traditional style. I have nothing against flash, mind you, but I think it would be neat to see some more detail and cinematic presentation. And please, I swear to Celestia, please no anime.

When the time comes around (If G4 ends well, it would probably be sooner) I certainly intend to at least give it a chance. I don't think I'd want an exact carbon copy of G4, though; the mane six and equestria will have had their run by that point, and I'd be interested in seeing some new ideas, maybe even a whole new setting, brought to the table. (So long as it isn't called Ponyland.) Either that, or if they did a decent reboot, like the JJ. Abrams Star Trek films. I think the big thing is that, whether we're seeing new or familiar faces, so long as the quality is at the very least passable, and they keep to the overall feeling of G4, then I'd be happy.

Ooh, touchy topic. Thus I must poke it! I wouldn't say MLP has jumped the shark, but there has been a notable decline in quality, particularly in Season 3. I don't like some of the directions things have taken (Discord, anyone?) but we have yet to encounter anything that'll really break it for me. (My opinion on Twilicorn is still pending; I want to see Season 4 first) I'll keep watching and hope things start to move back in an upward direction again.

I have a few stories up there, under the same username. Mostly one-shots, with a couple of mult-chapter stories I'm working on at a glacial pace.