OptimisticNeighsayer

I definitely agree that the friendships in G5 feel more organic than in G4. Let’s face it, in G4 the Mane Six were pretty much brought together, whichever way you look at it, by either Celestia herself or a nebulous, overriding “fate.” G5’s friends are clearly together on their own free will. (Ironically, that makes it better suited for the friendship angle G4 had, versus the activist “make a difference” angle of G5.) The main characters are also more difficult to classify into well-worn archetypes (particularly Zipp), so there’s more thought there. That extends to the character designs as well a bit. While it doesn’t personally bother me, I know several people who were turned off by G4’s mains all having the same basic body type; the variety in G5 gives another outlet for character expression and creativity. Personally I think it’s hard to tell whether Pipp’s diva character is a persona or a personality. She’s supposed to be a social media influencer, which requires a real blurring between acting and genuine belief. I disagree. While “Uprooted” has no obvious Easter motifs, its original airdate near the Easter holiday and its themes of resurrection and collective remembrance give it very strong Easter vibes that strike at the meaning of the holiday more than some painted eggs would. Also Winter Wrap-Up itself is kind of a springtime rebirth celebration. I never got that vibe at all frankly in G4? The series spent most time in Ponyville, a uniquely diverse place in Equestria, and barely ever aggrandized unicorn qualities as such.

Perhaps not so much “miss” as they tried to suppress the thought of it. Rather, unicorn’s biology is such that magic is necessary for optimal dopamine pathway functioning. (Except for Izzy, it seems overactive in her).

It’s one of her distinguishing features. Guiding Light commonly wears a gold ankh with a garnet gemstone in the loop on a black necklace. She picked it up somewhere in South Equestria.

I’ve got a morbid mind, I thought this was asking whether any had died recently. But no, I’ve been in the fandom since 2012, and keenly interested since 2010.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that in some respects, the older episodes might not age as well in the long run as the later episodes as some might think. While there was definitely more energy and sheer creativity in the earlier seasons, they also depicted a world that was already largely perfect with a few kinks to sort out, and rely on a platonic conception of values that are transcendent, unquestionable and must be preserved. Later seasons tended to depict an Equestria that is more fundamentally broken, and the values that it cherishes are conceived of as more realist (i.e. purely within the institutions themselves) and capable of evolution, which I think is more in line with the Zeitgeist of today (at least in some mainstream circles). There was an article I read a while back about how “Hamilton” and other works from the early to mid 2010s are now seen as a bit cringe today as they tended to gloss over real life realities in favor of the abstract optimism of the day; I wish I could remember where it was. Of course, the overall style and the characters themselves were always very appealing, so if nothing else those aspects will endure.

It’s possible that in the immediate aftermath of the magic coming back, earth ponies were more likely to blame Sprout for lying to them since he was the one leading the charge to the lighthouse. Phyllis also seems to have disowned her own devices, doesn’t seem to harbor any general ill feelings toward unicorns and pegasi anymore, and at least went out of her way to try to distance herself from her son: All of these factors combined might have caused earth ponies to be more forgiving of Phyllis than one might expect (presuming they were made public). I also don’t expect long-held attitudes to go a full 180 completely overnight in for large groups of people. You may be right that people won’t listen to Phyllis as much anymore, but it’s early enough in the development that others might doubt a little that not everyone is completely with the new order, and thus behave according to the old reality even if they don’t want to believe that’s the case.

Except that Phyllis actually has enough social clout for her opinions to be taken seriously. She came off more as just the archetypal “tough critic” to me.

I think there was something on Equestria Daily to that effect, can’t remember the specific article.