Them's Seeing Ponies

The mane six have fallen a little to the wayside recently (particularly during S8, largely due to the focus on the Student Six), but I nonetheless consider them to be the main selling point of the show (and the initial cause of the show's rise to popularity).

To be honest, I honestly believe it's for the best that FiM is ending soon. It's been a great run, but there's no real victory in continuing it until staleness hits (even perennial long-runners such as The Simpsons began to decline around their eight/ninth seasons). I appreciate S8 for its willingness to endeavour into new territory (and having it pay off more satisfactorily than I felt with S6 and 7), but nine seasons is enough (I suspect that the Student Six may be receiving a spin-off or comic material following S9 to expand further on their development).

I'd be fine with it personally. (For me it's a tie between "The Best Night Ever" due to being a great capper to the surprisingly consistent character arcs of S1 and "Twilight's Kingdom" for its unique cinematic scale and atmosphere).

Finally caught up by plowing through Ticket Master and Applebuck Season yesterday evening. The show's initial incarnation truly is a canyon of difference (at least) away from the more urban comedy-orientated tone of S8, what with the more cartoonish animation (I actually prefer it to S6-8's animation at times, somehow the art style and comedy of the earliest seasons gels better with the animation style earlier in the show's run whilst the later seasons tend to appear slightly flatter), the simplistic plots and Pinkie actually behaving like a functioning individual (she seems to have degenerated into a joke/gag machine in most recent episodes (particularly those where the main plot is not focused on her) whilst her appearances here were genuinely charming and hilarious). Overall, I assume that the lighthearted nature and charm of S1 is what draws me to it (and leads me to prefer the earlier seasons over the later ones). Later seasons work well on a more intellectual level at times, but the general sensation one feels whilst watching a Faust-era (or S3-4, to an extent) episode is a great comfortable happiness and satisfaction, whilst, say, a S6 episode will leave me groaning at how dull the plot is/how obnoxious the gags are.

I'd give the obvious answer in this circumstance. BUT, to freshen up this painfully evident answer, the first episode I caught any facet of on TV was the premiere of "Sweet and Elite" on the Hub, which I tuned into on a trial premium cable package by accident (yeah, it was challenging receiving the Hub back in the day, presumably leading to its premature demise in 2014). My nostalgia for the episode is surprisingly strong as a result.

Shining Armor was the main point of the controversy back in the day. At the time, I recall the brony fandom being extremely protective of Faust's philosophy that the show should (allegedly) not 'sell out' and turn into 'a typical girl's show', so having Twilight's brother (whom she had never referenced in the prior 50 episodes and was light on personality for a show which carried its vast popularity on the backs of its main cast's personalities) suddenly appear out of nowhere, introduce a pink alicorn princess as his bride and centre the finale around a royal wedding (a somewhat 'girls' cartoon'-style premise on paper, particularly after the previous season finale had featured the mane six comically crashing a party). It was "Alicorn Twilight syndrome" before alicorn Twilight was a thing - they believed that the show had 'sold out' and was deviated from Faust's vision. Some also criticized Chrysalis's plot as convoluted (it kind of was, but we got a ton of surprisingly cinematic material from it on a more positive note), which, of course, lead to the comments of the reviewer I described in my recollections. 2012 was definitely the height of the brony craze, and it was a weird intermingling period between the trend-surfers (who eventually moved onwards to Gravity Falls and Steven Universe), the casual watchers, the main fans and the hardcore Faust-devoted fans. One poster on another forum at the time noted that "we're experiencing a cultural milestone now; twenty years from now I'll take my kid into a 2010s restaurant and he'll see pictures of ponies on the wall and ask "Dad, what are those ponies there?" and I'll reply that I was a part of that movement. It's amazing". And yes, the earliest run of episodes during S4 was definitely a rough period for the fandom. I recall "Flight to the Finish" as being the sole episode out of the first seven to be generally well-liked without any additional baggage (even the premiere was a fairly divisive episode at the time in several fandom circles), and "Daring Don't" and "Power Ponies" in particular as sparking huge debate over their quality and the absurdity of their content. Alicorn Twilight's neglect during these episodes was also, if I recall correctly, a major sticking point for fans back in the day, who would constantly ask "why aren't [insert characters of the day here] referencing that Twilight's an alicorn?", which further spiralled the first few S4 episodes into controversy. There does not seem to have been any comparable contesting on any batch of episodes produced since that period, however (I assume that most of the more Faust-devoted or heavily critical bronies had dropped out by the latter half of S4, which may have contributed to this).

I honestly don't know if there are, but the brony fandom's history is definitely a strange and fascinating one, particularly in regards to its transition from widely publicized meme to well-weathered cartoon fandom. My recommendation would be to check Gyropedia (the MLP imageboard wiki) for the origins of the brony fandom (you may be surprised as to how the first bronies arose) and garner together other information (the events from 2011 - onwards) from other sources. As I joined during the summer 2011 boom (the point where Gyropedia ceases coverage of events), I recall that: Faust leaving was the first major rumbling in the fandom when announced around the time season 1 concluded. "Haters gonna hate" memes (often featuring Pinkie faces from "Swarm of the Century") were everywhere in 2011. The beginning of season 2 was viewed as a flop. This was largely due to Paleo Steino's reviews (he was one of the first of the now-dying breed of brony analysts, and was the first major fandom reviewer to tear apart "The Mysterious Mare Do Well'). Season 2 itself was viewed by some bronies as a disappointment (I remember one thread detailing "too many 'pointless filler episodes worth skipping' (they cited "It's About Time" as one), lack of collective focus on the mane six ("Baby Cakes" focused almost exclusively on Pinkie, why don't they produce more episodes featuring the mane six together?) and 'blatant marketing' such as the Friendship Express (why was indeed a toy at the time) and Shining Armor/Cadance). THAT promptly changed upon most bronies seeing the S3 synopsis. "Ponyville Confidential" and "A Canterlot Wedding" were among the most hotly contested episodes in the fandom prior to S3, PARTICULARLY the latter (one well-weathered reviewer on a forum back in the day delivered a lengthy epitaph on how the mane six should have stood their ground during the changeling battle and FOUGHT TO THE DEATH. ON A CHILDREN'S SHOW. I am serious here. Some bronies really were that crazy back then). Twilightlicious and Derpy were inescapable in 2012. The reactions to Derpy's appearance in "The Last Roundup" were uproarious. The brony analyst craze hit a peak around 2013. Digibrony in particular was huge for a few months (around the time EQG first premiered) and posed a number of interesting theories on the show's universe before careening completely off the rails and rage-quitting halfway through S4 due to conflicts with his headcanons. He is now an anime reviewer. S3 was a huge divisive element. It's widely considered one of the worst seasons here now, but woo boy... EVERY SINGLE EPISODE upload/thread was often filled with fans criticizing absurd details and noting a decline from S1 and 2. Some fans eventually began to defend the season (such as the now-controversial Mr Enter in his earliest videos), but a ton of bronies (Chad Rocco and Byter in particular, if you search around, you'll find a decent amount on their cases) were pretty brutal towards it. Sleepless in Ponyville and Wonderbolts Academy were acclaimed as they are now, however. Discord reforming was a pretty major development, but was overshadowed almost immediately by the alicorn Twilight reveal. Denim already summed up alicorn Twilight and the surrounding controversy well, but I should probably add that the initial rumbling of the event occurred in September the previous year, when an alicorn plushie prototype was discovered in the background of a toy fair photograph. The Equestria Daily poll run on "should Twilight become an alicorn?" that week gave the prompt majority response "NO". Equestria Girls disgusted quite a number of fans back in the day. Amazon reviews of the DVD were spammed with fake synopsis (including one of Rainbow Dash becoming a possessed zombie, believe it or not) and many fans quit (including YTPer MustardBunny, famous for the 'longest MLP YTP ever') upon the sight of it. The actual film went down okay, but the fandom was pretty fractured by that point. Friendship is Witchcraft was a huge fandom staple around 2012, but had largely faded into obscurity by 2014 due to the creators' lack of interest (and their treatment of differing opinions from their own). I assume they were pouring more energy into Kimi Sparkle by this time. The pony drought of 2013 was a desperate time with the fandom hanging with baited breath over whether the show would handle alicorn Twilight well (and also the cooling from the heated EQG controversy). The S4 premiere was hugely anticipated by the fans (note the official Hub ratings for its initial showing) and was mostly well-received, but the following episodes were highly controversial. "Daring Don't" was hugely divisive for defictionalizing Daring Do, "Power Ponies" featured a level of absurdity not familiar to the show prior, "Bats!" featured Flutterbat, etc. Fans were noting the shift from slice-of-life to "Twilight Zone" style-episodes during the earlier days of S4. Of course, "Rarity Takes Manehattan" eventually appeared to becalm the fans. The Equestria Games arc, in particular "Equestria Games" (for not featuring that much of the titular games themselves) was also divisive. The keys were heavily anticipated through S4 and were the subject of mass speculation, although it eventually became obvious as to which objects the 'keys' were by "Pinkie Pride" (I do recall one fan hypothesizing that Fluttershy's bat fang from the end of "Bats!" was a key for some reason). If you bashed Merriwether Williams, you were in the general consensus. This was until Scott Sonneborn supplanted this role during S4 with "Somepony to Watch Over Me" and "Trade Ya!". The S4-S5 hiatus was brutal. Not all returning fans were satisfied with S5 upon its initial showing (even I noted the show's change in tone to a more dialogue-driven style). Tommy Oliver also rage-quit at this point, dismantling the 'brony analyst' craze for the most part. "Slice of Life" (then referred to as 'the 100th episode') was a huge point of anticipation. Season 6 was one of the least-anticipated and dreaded seasons at the time due to the announced departures of M.A Larson (the fandom's favourite for years by that point), Amy Keating Rogers and Natasha Levinger (write of "Make New Friends but Keep Discord"). Ah yes, the brony fandom is indeed an illustrious one.

Denim is absolutely correct about the tumultuous nature of the fandom circa 2013. I remember Faust's departure and the Cadance/Shining Armor controversy (if one remembers the huge mass of complaints on "A Canterlot Wedding", at the time the show's most controversial episode) in 2012 being the beginnings of the rumblings, but the short nature of S3 (I recall one post from the time noting that Magic Duel and Wonderbolts Academy were the 'only' interesting premises of the season), alicorn Twilight emerging at the end of the already-controversial season and the first appearance of Equestria Girls - that was pretty much the trifecta that killed the fandom's initial memetic status and fizzled out the brony 'craze' (it presumably also didn't help that Gravity Falls and Steven Universe, both immensely popular shows themselves, premiered around this period, thus stealing some of FiM's thunder as the 'latest animated craze'). And then we had the Great Pony Drought of '13. And then S4, which I recall garnering mass controversy as well (episodes such as "Daring Don't" were among the most notable cases, and ended the 'Digibrony fad' of 2013 (I still have little idea how that passed over as it did)). The dust didn't settle until around the midpoint of S5, yet by that point the 'bronies' had become more 'the fandom' than the huge enveloping craze of the 2011-12 period. As for the topic itself, I wrote this piece describing my views before the S7 premiere (S7 and 8 have improved Twilight's characterization by a decent margin, albeit she nonetheless is far from her pre-S4 golden era):

Somehow, the concept of a K-pop boy band starring in MLP would be pretty dissonant with both the show's tone and budget (unless they could both pull together the funds to pay them and work them into a reasonable context instead of shoehorning them in), but I wouldn't immediately diss it. If we can have a Robot Chicken voice actress on this show, then a boy band is fair game, I guess.

There is no way that I could miss out on this. As a brony of seven years now, it's fascinating to head back into the early days of the show and track its evolution from surprise hit to well-established 2010s animated stronghold. Ah yes, the original opening sequence. I honestly miss it (why did season 8 have to revamp it to that overstuffed mess?). One of the most curious elements of the early season 1 episodes is their airy background music, which I feel has faded somewhat as the years have progressed (with a few exceptions, such as "Molt Down"). It doesn't always fit a scene's tone perfectly, but it's pleasurable hearing more personable music. I'd forgotten how acerbic season 1 Twilight was. "Lesson Zero" was definitely the turning point in modifying her characterization somewhat (possibly for the better) into the hammy dorkus we know and love today. Note also the Spikeabuse. Later episodes would treat their relationship as a close emotional connection, which is bizarre considering that Twilight is kind of a jacka** to him in his introductory scene. The neighing guards... the original writing team sure loved the horse references. I unabashedly share their sentiments. Pinkie's gasp is timed so amazingly. I miss the Craig McCracken-style comedy of the show's earliest seasons. More great comedy with each of the mane six's introductions. The pilot is frequently forgotten in the grander scheme of fandom discussion these days, but I'd say it deserves a little more recognition, largely because of how incredibly charming the show presents itself as. And the legend of Derpy is born. It's incredible how different the show was back in its infancy. This episode (and others I can recall from the first season) are extremely awash in the 'Faust' creative style, which is genuinely difficult to describe... I guess 'charming' is the right term? Honestly, so many elements of this episode (the cartoon slapstick, Pinkie's antics, etc.) feel as if they could have blown up disastrously in other hands, but something about the intangibles of the show's character chemistry and the pacing and execution of these elements (creating a lighthearted and energetic tone, but seldom overbearing or insincere, as a few later episodes tend to feel) places them into an interesting sweet spot. The episode's overall execution is very earnest and its character chemistry is natural (seasons 1 and 2 arguably feature the mane six's interactions at their most realistic and nuanced), yet it's still unashamedly a kid's show. No wonder the brony fandom emerged so rapidly. Some of the material here is cheesy (particularly some of the dialogue in the first part's final scene), but it doesn't feel overly egregious to me. The cheese is part of this show's fun factor (at least as it presents itself here), and that somehow negates most of its potential irritation, provided it isn't detrimental to an episode's surrounding themes and emotions. The scenes of the cast walking through the Everfree do become pretty repetitive, but the character chemistry is decent enough for me to excuse it. A fair number of the scenes in the second part are rushed, an issue I honestly suspect was related to production issues. It does become more frustrating as the episode advances, but at least the climax is a good payoff. And a side note: of the mane six, Pinkie and Dashie appears to have suffered the most regression, in my opinion - whilst Twilight (in S7-8, don't get me started on her blandness on S4-6), Rarity, AJ and Fluttershy have all expanded and matured, Dashie's arrogance has become less innocently played, which creates a more difficult balance for the writers if they screw her up (most of the best Dashie characterizations are surprisingly specifically written - just take note on "Wonderbolts Academy"), whilst Pinkie's antics have become increasingly tiresome over the past five(!) seasons (in comparison to her more charming and quirky Genki Girl portrayal here).

Personally, it's not so much a matter of quality as it is a matter of taste. The newer (as in seasons 6-8, I genuinely love season 4 and am fine with season 5) seasons are honestly my least favorite of the show's run (although I actually consider 8 to be a minor improvement over S6-7), although it's not so much the lack of quality that irks me about them (save for S6, which is legitimately disappointing) as that I simply don't appreciate their more sedate, dialogue-driven style as others. Due to their more subtle moments of 'maturity' (I feel that the main reason that the brony fandom exploded to such a surprising extent was due to the unique tone of S1-2, which balanced incredibly funny and relatable character writing with the principle of remaining a kid's show, whilst even S3-5 feel more overt about their 'maturity', thus losing some of the 'uniqueness' of the earliest seasons for me), the better comedy (I appreciate the charming Faustian/McCracken style over the more exaggerated Nickelodeon-esque humour of early S7 or the generic dry comedy of many Haber-run episodes, although season 8 is the funniest in a while) and the greater focus on developing aspects of the mane six (who I feel have fallen somewhat to the wayside recently, despite still churning out a number of decent outings every season), I prefer S1-3 to an extent, although I wouldn't go so far as to trash S4-8. They're far from bad seasons (even S6 and S7 are merely okay) and deserve some level of recognition for their own personal qualities. That being said, I agree with AlbaTross's note on season divisions. I would cite the show currently as having four different eras, with the early seasons (noted for unicorn Twilight's arc and the lighter/more comedic tone) being S1-3, the 'McCarthy' seasons (with a greater focus on deepening the show's narrative scope whilst adding a record-breaking rate of fanservice) as S4 and 5, the 'transitional seasons' (produced during work on the movie, noted for more experimental styles and focus on Starlight) being S6 and 7 and the 'Dubuc' era (distinct for focus on the Student Six and stronger inter-episode continuity) being S8 (and probably S9 when it releases). Lumping, say, S4 in with S8 is pretty licentious at this point when considering the changes the show has undergone since 2013.

I can understand some of your points, but season 8 is genuinely not terrible. It's certainly not one of the better seasons (although there are some who may disagree, obviously) but it's better than S6 and 7 to me in that I find it has more of a unified sense of direction and humour than those two seasons, which felt more slapdashed to me (S6 had very little personal style and suffered from poor designation of episodes (too little Starlight and too many awkward filler episodes) and S7 was a weird mixture of the Lady Writer's more Nickelodeon-esque style and Haber's more sedate tone). Considering that the strong Cartoon Cartoon-esque undertones were a major factor in drawing me into this show in the first place, it's nice to see the show feel more confident now, even if the episode quality isn't always that consistent. I also wouldn't immediately accuse S8 of casually rehashing older plotlines to as great an extent as you seem to be implying. Yes, "Father Knows Beast" is similar thematically to "Dragon Quest", but the former, while faaarrrr from perfect (it's still kind of sloppy otherwise and the episode feels like a minor cop-out due to its refusal to delve into the ambiguity of Spike's parentage), handles "Dragon Quest"'s themes in a more balanced manner without being overly blatant or discriminating as DQ ("Dragon Quest", not a certain muskox) generally was. FKB has issues, but being a ripoff isn't one I would majorly hold against it.

Nah, I'd honestly prefer for the writers to maintain a balance. Character overexposure (particularly when a) one is writing for an ensemble show as with FiM and b) if it happens to be extraneous to the narrative) can be damaging or disastrous to a TV show, and considering that S8 has eased up on the Starlight overexposure (in comparison to S7), I would simply hope that they continue to use Starlight in this way - feature her when it's necessary or contributes positively to the narrative and its themes. She's not the main character, it's not exactly a matter where the audience must be reminded of her presence in every episode (I find it difficult to believe that episodes such as "The Washouts" could include her without it coming off as shoehorning). As for S8's second half, considering that the season has already made conceptual leaps and bounds with Spike (not that I thought "Molt Down" was even a 5/5, but it did wonders for his role and characterization going forward into the enigmatic final season), I'm definitely anticipating "Father Knows Beast", although the two Pillar episodes (thank Celestia that the writers remember their existence) and "The End in Friend" (largely because of the shocking lack of Dashie/Rarity interactions over eight seasons - other than this, we've had "Rarity Investigates!" and "Sonic Rainboom", although they didn't actually interact that much there, and... well... I got nothing) are also of interest. Here's to hoping that the writing team at least delivers a number of decently conveyed narratives.

Why not actually discuss the episode's plot, writing, etc. as opposed to fixating on solely parity? I don't mean to sound confrontational, but I remain unsure as to how 'this character must not appear alongside y otherwise this episode will be terrible!' qualifies as so vital to the show's wellbeing, considering how flimsy a construct it is to judge episodes on.

Unlikely (not to mention improbable - can unicorns technically cast spells that allow them to breathe in space?), but entertaining - how would the guy react to eternal damnation on a vast, empty moonscape? Perhaps team up with some other life form banished there by the Princess of Baked Decadence and exact his vengeance for his exile by TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD? *cue Pinky and the Brain theme*. But yes, the finale does sound akin to a plot direction that could fatally misfire. Here's to hoping that, as ridiculous as it sounds (and is), the writers at least reprise Tirek with dignity (and don't push Neighsay into season 5 Starlight syndrome by transforming him from an extremist with a different worldview from Twilight's to a hammy, vengeful comic book villain (which would be even less compatible with Neighsay's established character than with Starlight)). It is certainly noble of Dashie, but isn't that kind of a bizarre reason to class her as your second favourite merely because she saved your favourite briefly in one episode? I'm unsure as to whether you have other reasons behind it, but, although I could be wrong, the wording in your reply implies such reasoning.

Honestly, it's incredibly improbable that the Student Six will become the new main cast members, largely because the mane six are far too well-loved and established by this point in the show's history (and the crew understands their following enough to recognize that) and upturning the main cast with only a season remaining is an extremely rare (and generally misguided) move. Also, I wouldn't assume that the remainder of S8 will be a 'disaster' (maybe a 'disappointment' judging by your established criteria, but nothing as hyperbolic as a true 'disaster') due to 'overuse' of Twilight, lack of CMCs, etc. Inter-seasonal character inbalance can be an issue, but I trust the show to at least invest some effort into producing decent episodes out of it anyway (not to mention that, judging by the upcoming synopsis, the inbalance itself does not seem to be significant) - I've heard some claim that Dashie was overused in S2, but without that 'overuse', we wouldn't have received 'Read It and Weep', one of the show's best-reviewed episodes.

I actually can understand a little why the OP declared season 7 to be the worst. While I myself wouldn't consider it the worst, it's pretty middle of the road for me in that I find the majority of the episodes somewhat stolid. Yes, there are a few standouts, but even they feel sort of hackneyed in a strange intangible way. I can't describe exactly why specifically, but I definitely consider many of season 7's concepts significantly more promising than the actual execution (an episode chronicling the romance between Applejack's parents, for example, was an excellent concept, but the actual execution of that idea felt a little sanitized to me, while 'Shadow Play', despite its amazing concept, was rendered more tedious than it had any right to be by an overload of exposition and poor pacing). Not to mention the season's clunkers ('Hard to Say Anything', 'Honest Apple' and 'Daring Done?' in particular, although 'Fluttershy Leans In' was pretty limp as well) were more frequent than the gems (asides from PP, 'Discordant Harmony', 'A Health of Information' and 'Once Upon a Zeppelin', all of which were good, but never incited that 'wow, that was great' feeling within me) and Starlight's constant overexposure began to wear out on me pretty quickly. But credits where credit's due, at least the season was fairly consistent otherwise and there were a few interesting concepts present. Personally, I'd side with Whomps on this one. Season 6 is almost certainly the weakest season in that the characterization was heavily inconsistent (particularly in regards to AJ and Dashie), the lows were far lower than the highs were high (the best episode of the season to me was probably 'Dungeons and Discords', and that wouldn't even crack my top 15), which kind of exposed the poor quality of the duds even further, many episode concepts were pretty dull and/or inherently botched (step forth, Zephyr Breeze), leaving them almost dead-on-arrival and Starlight development (the alleged focus of the season) was replaced by meaningless, vacuous filler such as 'Applejack's Day Off', 'The Cart Before the Ponies' and 'P.P.O.V'. While not exactly the worst case of seasonal rot I've witnessed, season 6 is definitely felt the laziest/most slapdashed of the seasons we've seen thus far, possibly owing to Josh Haber's writing style (his weird, tropish 'is it a parody or actually wait no it isn't' style is conspicuous across nearly the entirety of the season). Second place would probably by season 3, though - yes, its shorter length may play a role in this, but I doubt such a factor had any role in how dry/uneven the second half was, with the dullfest that was 'Apple Family Reunion', the clunky and asinine 'Spike at Your Service', the poorly paced 'Keep Calm and Flutter On' and 'Magical Mystery Cure' (even though I admit to enjoying the latter), the middling 'Just for Sidekicks' and the all-gags-no-story affair that was 'Games Ponies Play'. That's not an amazingly favourable batch of episodes there, which may explain to some extent the long-standing criticisms people tend to lobby at the season.

Nah, it's not Thorax. As Ganondorf said, it was probably simply a comedic easter egg for the fans, which makes logical sense considering that the episode was basically a giant, goofily over-the-top parody of the fandom and its related content (I swear there were fanfictions focusing on benevolent Changeling drones a good while before Thorax came into the picture).

SUCCESS! *Initiating happy cry sequence...*