Is MLP Playing it Safe?

[A goat 323]

I could not agree more with you. The Lion King and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame were pretty dark for movies that were ment for kids, and those movies are classics! So why can't MLP take risks?

[Wulfgar Von Heltzer 42]

Any story that's inconsistent in mood is a bad story. Some moods, I believe, can work together without clashing (horror and sad go well with eachother I think), but serious and comedy, for example, do not. MLP is conistently light-hearted and comedic, so it suddenly being dark and or serious would be too jarring. That, and just LOOK at the characters:

 

 

 

Does this look like something you could take seriously in a dark setting? The designs are too exaggerated and silly looking to be taken seriously. It just can't work. As I said, mixing a light-hearted comedy with dark and serious tones is a recipe for bad storytelling.

Edited October 21, 2014 by Wulfgar Von Heltzer

[sweetolebob18 728]

Well, they ARE a TVY kid's cartoon, they are fairly limited in what they can do.  That said, in Season 3 & 4 they had some episodes riding the line on what you can put in TVY.  So far this year they are playing it a lot safer.

[cider float 2,538]

My Little Pony's greatest appeal was that it was fun to watch for any age without having to resort to complications in morale, sudden plot twists or ridiculously gruesome events. They're definitely not trying to write a novel here but have their own style of a story you can watch.

Edited July 27, 2015 by cider float

[UnknownFry 169]

Playing it safe is one way to put it, but I think it is more like the fact the staff is keeping it simple in order to keep the show as much as accessible that is possible while still marketing toys and promoting an optimistic social values. One does not have to be too complex or even all that dark to make a fine show, and so far the show has stayed true to itself for five seasons more or less.

 

It is true that some of the earlier generations of MLP were darker in tone though.

Edited July 27, 2015 by UnknownFry

[cider float 2,538]

What examples in the previous generations made them more dark though?

[Goat-kun 2,528]

I guess it’s because Bronies don’t like to buy their crummy toys as much as young children. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, the hand in question standing for all the wallets of concerned (trigger-prone and uninformed) middle class parents. You poke these guys with the fun stick and they explode like nitro.

 

Would I like to see competent villains and resourceful heroes pitted against each other in some fabulous Equestrian adventure? Yes I would. It doesn’t have to be dark; it just needs to be intelligently written (which is considered dark in some circles). Can you imagine a villain that is smart and knowledgeable enough to predict, comprehend, evade, and counter ALL THE MACHINAS? Can you imagine Mane 6 fighting someone like Nicol Bolas? It would be a travesty that would butter my popcorn. But deep down in my heart, I know that these mares weren’t really made for fighting or thwarting grand machinations, but for snuggling. So yeah, they should probably just stick with incompetent monsters and angry mares. Do what you do best, I say.