The essential difference between FIM and past generations

[Eloquence 2,076]

Well, the animation is an obvious improvement, but that's to be expected in a show that uses modern technology instead of 80s technicolor. I haven't watched much from the earlier gens, but what I've seen so far tells me that g4 is much more well written. The earlier gens seem to have often been written in a way that makes the characters seem wooden and feels condescending to the viewer. The writing in g4 makes the characters feel believable and doesn't talk down to its audience by oversimplifying everything while still being accessible to its child audience.

[Darker 1,351]

G1 was mature and dark, with better morals and much more work put into it, especially on the movie and the pilots.

The animation was nothing impressive but still, better than He-Man.

 

G2 was more for teenagers, and did pretty well, throwing away anything too fantasy-like to make it more "realistic", to the point were the ponies were more antropomorphic.

 

G3 was mainly for little girls, but this one inspired G3 the most aside from G1, so give it props anyway.

 

G3.5 was stupid, the concept of turning the G3 ponies into babies was just for marketing purposes, but it barely had a season, so I can't say anything.

 

The characters were the same in previous generations, only that there were too many, and not always it would have the same main characters.

 

The songs, while good, aren't as good as G4's, but they're thousands of times catchier.

 

The villains were FAR better in G1, much more wicked and evil, and served to be different faces from evil. Tirek, was supposed to represent Satan. The villains from G4 are all badly done rip-offs, the worst part from the show.

 

Even in G2, the overused bullies are far more enjoyable than the annoying Diamond Tiara, and far worse than her, she does everything for no reason, bullies are just bullies, pretty much acting like human bullies.

 

I would also like to add that the series were going down hill, from very unique mature morals to generic morals that Disney taught kids in the 40s.

[iceestarz 5,764]

After I got into g4, which was right after season 3 ended I watched all the episodes and got all sad because of the pony hiatus.

 

So I tried watching g3 to see if it would at least make me feel not as sad. Yeah, it was an episode about pinkie pie's surprise birthday. It was awful, the voices all sounded the same and really annoying. The characters didn't have any depth compared to g4. Pinkie Pie was my favorite in FIM but I seriously wanted to strangle the Pinkie from g3. Just...no. Halfway through the episode I wanted to slam my head into the wall.

 

I haven't seen any of the other generations but that was enough to not make me want to even look into the rest.

[Fractured 2,684]

Well, the animation is an obvious improvement, but that's to be expected in a show that uses modern technology instead of 80s technicolor. I haven't watched much from the earlier gens, but what I've seen so far tells me that g4 is much more well written. The earlier gens seem to have often been written in a way that makes the characters seem wooden and feels condescending to the viewer. The writing in g4 makes the characters feel believable and doesn't talk down to its audience by oversimplifying everything while still being accessible to its child audience.

Depends. Actually, the worst written episodes in G1 are actually the pilots and Escape from Catrina. The characters that do talk like that do it because they're babies, which makes it realistic. Everyone else is actually surprisingly well written, despite the characters being...flat, at times.

 

G1 was mature and dark, with better morals and much more work put into it, especially on the movie and the pilots.

The animation was nothing impressive but still, better than He-Man.

 

The songs, while good, aren't as good as G4's, but they're thousands of times catchier.

 

The villains were FAR better in G1, much more wicked and evil, and served to be different faces from evil. Tirek, was supposed to represent Satan. The villains from G4 are all badly done rip-offs, the worst part from the show.

 

I would also like to add that the series were going down hill, from very unique mature morals to generic morals that Disney taught kids in the 40s.

I was also surprised by how utterly dark G1 is. Two scenes in particular stuck out to me as the shining example:

 

The three henchman who died onscreen in The Glass Princess. Made worse because Porcina has the power to revive them, there was no reason she couldn't save them. 

 

and

 

Megan and the ponies refusing to save Catrina while she's sinking by her nails into a bottomless well. They save her once she agrees to destroy the machine, a decision she makes surprisingly quickly...

 

The songs, to me, range from decent to bad, but they continue to get better as I watch them. Flutterponies in particular was rather surprising, they are god awful arrogant.

The villains actually make logical decisions. G4 villains are dark when you think about them, but oftentimes, they do stupid things for seemingly no reason. They're not tactical geniuses, but in the long runs, their decisions make sense.

Morals are for you to figure out, which is really cool. G4 states its morals right out, which could help people get the ideas presented, but also has the habit of confusing people who watch it. Many a reviewer has raged over the lesson at the end of the show.

[Stardust 641]

G1 I think of the classic merch. I watched the older cartoons and I feel meh about it. Idk maybe as a young kid I woulda liked but so old fashioned now lol. I like some of the characters though like fizzy and firefly.

G2 never had any cartoon but they did have some game and that. And ofc the toys. The long legs had some style. This is the gen I grew up with really ;P I enjoyed these toys even though sometimes I'm like this is too girly for me haha. But it was fun brushing the hair and doing stuff like putting shampoo in their hair. A friend of mine had a lot of g2 ponies and we played together. 

G3 was really weird. I don't really remember the toys I remember my friend watching the cartoon though. I was like blegh is this barbie or something. Everything was extra pinked up and tea party like. More so than gen1 or gen2. I thought this is crazy and kinda babyish but eh suits some people who like that :3 I watched some of the gameboy games and actually they looked fun enough. But wow rainbow dash though she is basically rarity but more something lol. 

At first with g4 actually I thought wow what are these actually ponies the art is so flat not look like an actual horse and cartoony. Then I warmed up to it, I liked spike first though being a dragon. It sorta slowly caught on. The fan stuff was amazing and I was like woah. I did kinda come to like the personalities of the pones and stuff. And yeah the cartoon is much better ofc than g1 which is something of it's time like that style of story and the enemies and the style of cartoon lol. But it had these innocence vibe. 

[Splashee 28,564]

On 8/18/2014 at 4:01 AM, Eloquence said:

Well, the animation is an obvious improvement, but that's to be expected in a show that uses modern technology instead of 80s technicolor

Really?

I would say the 80s is using better animation and art, compared to FIM. You just need a good source, high quality video.

Of course the ponies don't look like Lauren Faust's cats, but not much to complain about.

[Paleopony 701]

1. The characters in FIM are more relatable and complex than earlier generations.
2. The animation styles are very different, gen1-3 were hand drawn (except for Newborn Cuties) and FIM was done using flash.
3. The songs in the previous generations were okay at best but a lot of them were pretty bad. FIM's songs on the other hand are pretty good for the most part.
4. FIM also gained an unexpected adult audience, particularly males, while G1-3 did not have so many adult fans.
5. Fans of FIM have created more content than those of previous generations.

[Dreambiscuit 9,816]

I like the animation style better with FIM. The writing was decent in G1 and G2 but G3 was a little like going into production on the first draft of a script and didn't put enough effort into taking it up a notch. FIM has solid writing with a few exceptions here and there, good character design, and is nicely animated. It really looks like the producers cared about what they were making and not underestimating their audience with dumbed-down scripts. 

[Splashee 28,564]

Looking at it from a past perspective, now when we enter G5, it wasn't really that big of a difference, except for the fandom the first couple of years after FIM first aired.

[ExplosionMare 18,063]

• The animation quality. FiM didn’t have the highest budget when it started, either, but it’s the only gen that significantly improved or at least changed the style of the animation as it continued
• Storylines. G1 had a fair amount of world building and G2 had some here and there, but G4 is the only gen that really took it somewhere
• Fandom pandering (or fandering as I like to call it). The older gens never did anything to appease anyone outside of who they thought they had to appease. G4 is the only gen that originally wanted to appease parents, and later on, the massive fandom
• Background character design. G4 managed to put so much effort in all their background characters, even the recolored ones. The past gens didn’t have too many characters in the background and most of them hardly stood out.

[JMTV99 1,353]

My opinion on this is that:

1. FiM is filled with lots of love and care. Previous generations are just corporately manufacture toy commercials for every decade doing the same old schtick over and over again

2.  Lauren Faust's character design is a lot more appealing. Previous generations? Not so much. (I'm only being nice)

3. Songs in G4 are super catchy. Previous gens are just dumb-downed generic kids songs that just makes you wanna cringe

4. The world of G4 was so enriching. Previous gens does have some worldbuilding, but it didn't utilized it very well.

5. G4 was made to appeal to everyone. While G1-G3 was made exclusively made towards girls and nothing else

While the previous generations does have it's fans, but for me, FiM was far superior(for the most part).

[Scootaloo9074090 501]

On 2021-07-13 at 10:32 PM, JMTV99 said:

My opinion on this is that:

1. FiM is filled with lots of love and care. Previous generations are just corporately manufacture toy commercials for every decade doing the same old schtick over and over again

2.  Lauren Faust's character design is a lot more appealing. Previous generations? Not so much. (I'm only being nice)

3. Songs in G4 are super catchy. Previous gens are just dumb-downed generic kids songs that just makes you wanna cringe

4. The world of G4 was so enriching. Previous gens does have some worldbuilding, but it didn't utilized it very well.

5. G4 was made to appeal to everyone. While G1-G3 was made exclusively made towards girls and nothing else

While the previous generations does have it's fans, but for me, FiM was far superior(for the most part).

  Soundwave:  My little Pony friendship Is Magic Superior.  older generation of My little pony inferior 

 well even I gotta agree with soundwave G4 is awesome and better music character development than the Bland Past Generation 

[Envy 6,169]

On 2021-07-13 at 9:32 PM, JMTV99 said:

5. G4 was made to appeal to everyone. While G1-G3 was made exclusively made towards girls and nothing else

FiM, as stated by Faust herself, was created to give girls good entertainment and a variety of well-developed female characters to like.

FiM was aimed toward girls, and that's okay. Nothing to be ashamed of that you enjoy it. Media can always be created for a group other than yourself and you somehow enjoy it anyway, like me with Shonen anime/manga. lol

[JMTV99 1,353]

3 hours ago, Envy said:

FiM, as stated by Faust herself, was created to give girls good entertainment and a variety of well-developed female characters to like.

FiM was aimed toward girls, and that's okay. Nothing to be ashamed of that you enjoy it. Media can always be created for a group other than yourself and you somehow enjoy it anyway, like me with Shonen anime/manga. lol

I understand.