AlexanderThrond

If Neighsay works for her, then it's not a free speech issue, it's a matter of policy. If he doesn't work for her, she doesn't have absolute power.

Well, that's mostly what I meant, though let's not forget that Starlight kidnapped and imprisoned the mane six. If she had authority over education in Equestria, she would have gotten rid of Neighsay a long time ago, surely.

That would have to be about Neighsay and his hatred of non-ponies.

That's kinda why my refrain in the later seasons was just that I don't care about the worldbuilding. In season 7 especially I kinda wish they hadn't doubled down on mythology at all; I think the show is weaker for it, not stronger. I have complicated feelings on the topic. I like that specific episode but don't really like how some of the characters turned out. I guess I feel it makes the most of some terrible ideas.

In general, I don't see a show leaving room for imagination as a positive quality; it's neutral at best. I watch shows for the shows, not for inspiration to write my own fiction. This is actually an unusual case, though, because My Little Pony is a toy brand first and a TV cartoon second, so leaving room for kids to make up stories is probably for the best. In that respect my preferences aren't important. Still, I think the vagueness of the show's backstory hurts it when stories rely on that history. I never cared about the Pillars, for instance, because their backstory struck me as uninspired. That stuff needed more flavour rather than more detail, but detail could have at least given me more to chew on. Similarly, the vague backstory of Griffonstone actively hurt the story of the "Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" episode. Without more detail, I found the premise that Griffonstone fell because griffons abandoned friendship difficult to believe. I think "Hearth's Warming Eve" is actually an example where you can work out the broad strokes of what happened, but at the same time I always get distracted wondering exactly what the nature of that play is. That episode isn't an entirely coherent story, and a little more clarity wouldn't ruin the mystery of it. The incoherence is in the way - this show isn't abstract art or pure surrealism, so it ought to be grounded in something. But that story isn't about history in the same way that "Lost Treasure of Griffonstone" and "Shadow Play" are, so it's not a huge deal to me. When the show is mostly about personality and humour, plot deficiencies don't really matter, but it's different when that stuff is in the spotlight.

They're cute. I think we need to remember that Rainbow deliberately avoided telling them about her accomplishments, so we can probably assume the reason they didn't see her much is because that's what Rainbow wanted. The thing about that episode, to me, is that on one hand, it's easy to understand why Rainbow would feel embarrassed by her parents, but it's also clear that they're harmless and not actually bothering anyone. That's what makes it such a great episode. I need to watch it again but my complaint was that the ending is too one-sided; of course Rainbow Dash was wrong to lash out at her parents like that... but that doesn't mean her feelings were invalid, which I'm not sure the episode makes clear enough.

I didn't really mind the weird complexity of Scootaloo's home situation. I found it interesting. Plus it seemed like it was working out for her. I wonder how it developed; maybe the parents had meant to come home more often, and then they just didn't. We know that they came back because they realized they had been neglectful, so it makes sense that they might have been concerned about Scootaloo living on her own but never got around to fixing it. I wonder if the aunts considered moving in with her before, but didn't want to intrude on a situation which seemed like it was mostly working. I was never really invested in Scootaloo being an orphan, first because the fandom had assumed that of every character whose parents had not been introduced, and then later because we already had Apple Bloom to fill that role in the CMC. The result we got - that she had a family who was never around, in contrast to Apple Bloom having no parents but still living with a loving family - was much more compelling to me. The best part of that episode is how it exaggerates that situation: Scootaloo's parents don't just have demanding jobs, they share a crazy, awesome job that requires them to spend all their time on a whole other continent. I found that very amusing. My key gripe with that episode is that Scootaloo doesn't seem to resent her parents for this at all, which I don't think makes sense. She sure does love those parents she never sees and barely hears from. I think showing her feeling that way also would have resolved the inconsistency with "Parental Glideance" - even as is, it's a fact that Scootaloo's parents were never there while Rainbow's were always fawning over her. It would have added a lot more emotional weight to an episode that seemed to go out of its way to avoid anything really thorny. Did that episode really need to mostly consist of the CMC's harebrained schemes? They had to lean on the CMC's weird jobs at Cutie Mark experts because god forbid they try to be thoughtful. This didn't seem like a story where everything should have turned out perfectly for everyone. But I don't recall any sort of hints to her home life or backstory before season 7 or so. For a long time it could have gone in any number of directions, and even in the later seasons nothing implied that her parents were dead, merely that they weren't there for her. And, I mean... they weren't. By the time that episode aired, most of its ideas had already been openly discussed by the staff a long time ago, so I took them for granted. Or maybe I just never got that invested in the CMC, I dunno. I agree that Spike's wings are inconsequential, but I think they got a good story about puberty out of it. That episode definitely had more on its mind than "I dunno, give Spike wings."

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time.

They have made a couple mobile games. I have a hard time imagining a little girls' show publishing a full-fledged $30 PC/console game, and nobody is willing to pay even $6 for a licensed mobile game anymore. Though I must admit that the idea of a combat- or action-oriented My Little Pony video game isn't something that interests me much; that old Fighting is Magic thing always kinda baffled me, so it's probably for the best that it evolved into something else. But I doubt we'd see the adventure game or visual novel I would like either.

If you haven't seen the post-Legend of Everfree specials, they're on Netflix under "Tales of Canterlot High." The first two specials after that, "Forgotten Friendship" and "Rollercoaster of Friendship," are also listed individually on Netflix, if you don't want to watch them split into six separate chunks on YouTube.

I should clarify that what I mean is Starlight's ideology is extreme enough that opposing it doesn't necessarily mean opposing all socialism. Most left-wing ideologies have never appeared in the show. I feel like the OP is trying to criticize Equestria's politics and economy in some way but I don't see how being opposed to Starlight's ideology is a bad thing.

Okay nope this is my limit. I am not arguing over the definition of socialism. I think a lot of socialists would be very surprised to hear you claim they believe in oppression or conformity. Though I seriously wonder what the OP's point about anti-communism was if they're using Starlight as an example.

Is Flash Sentry a Nice Guy™? I do not like this song. That auto-tune is really annoying, the rap is wack, and this kinda just seems like a lame lyrical theme. And for a song that is more or less about how cool the girls is, it sure is a lot about him. Get out of the way, Flash. Toaster monster is kinda funny but I am completely burnt out on the superheroics half of this series. Most of the time it just feels bland to me; here they just sort of shoot lazers at the thing until it dies. I mean this is just a music video, but surely it could be flashier.