G4 or Previous Gens?

[Rainbowdash_82 404]

I am curious, which one do you prefer more, G4 or Previous generations of My Little Pony?

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 42,202]

G4, all the way. I mainly say this because I have not extensively watched any past gens, though what I have seen from gens 3 and 3.5 were pretty terrible, so I know I would not go with those. I have heard the first gen is decent enough, but I still think that even it could not hold a candle to G4.

[Dark Qiviut 22,583]

Without a doubt, G4. It's objectively the best incarnation of the franchise. Great characters, great stories (especially this year), lessons everyone can relate (especially the mature ones), and overall much better execution than the others. It's the generation that took the franchise back to its unisex roots.

 

The only other generation that's even close to G4 is pre-Tales G1. The animation and storytelling are very dated, but G1 has heart and a mutual respect for all demographics.

 

Tales, G3, and G3.5? They're responsible for introducing the sexist mantra that MLP is "for little girls" and don't deserve any praise whatsoever.

 

G2? Well, it never ever got a chance, so I hold nothing against it.

[Comic Sans 401]

G4. Infact, G4 is the only generation I've ever liked. I hated MLP when I was growing up and it took G4 to make me like it. Doesn't mean I like older generations, I still don't, but there you go.

[Moony the Cat 3,707]

I like G 1.5 the most^^

 

It has one of the best drawing Styles for Cartoon Ponys and all of the Characters are very cute.

I also like, that it is some sort of teen drama series. 

 

When it comes to drawing Styles, i would also prefer G1, G2, G3 and even G3.5 over G4. ( the Once upon a Pony Time Styles are not included, because they are looking horrible. )

 

And when it comes to Games, i prefer G2 Friendship Gardens, because its like a more simplistic The Sims game and it was the most fun. 

When it comes to Movies, i prefer G1 ( The Movie ) or G3 ( Twinkle Wish Adventure ). 

Never watched any Equestria Girls Movies, but the older Gens are still better in drawing Styles for me.

[Pinkiest Pie 405]

I possibly must say I like Generation 4 the most, it seems to have a better art style. The plots are more believable.

They actually have things which make it unique and not just a bunch of colourful horses doing random stuff.

[Envy 6,374]

For animation, G4 is my favorite (although season five and its flaws are starting to weigh on that opinion). For toys, G3 is my favorite. G1's pretty good all-around, but I prefer not to get myself into the toys because I think that would be too much money. Lol. G3 has my favorite styles overall... G1 is too...80s for me. Lol. G3 really is the height of designs for me (note, I don't necessarily mean the artstyle, but the designs for the individual ponies themselves).

 

So, I don't know where I really stand, anymore. We'll see how G4 goes with Season 6. If it continues on with the terrible things that Season 5 did, well... FiM will start going really sour for me, and that's really all there is to G4, since the toyline is, while cute, not very enticing.

[Bogrick Grey Mane 2,594]

I used to like the previous generations, but that was mainly because Faust hadn't performed here magic and come up with G4.

When this happened  I sort of became a little bit anti towards G1, and found it very difficult to watch any of the old shows.

Now though I have settled back into liking them again, coming to realize that we wouldn't have our G4's if it wasn't for these wonderful multicolored predecessors  

[EverEverOn 346]

G4 all the way. As a little girl, I never cared for the older versions of the ponies I owned, including G1 and G3. I don't believe I even owned any G2 ponies back then, and I still don't.

G4 is what made me care for the ponies in the first place, and I don't believe any other generation can beat it.

[Aurora Storm 83]

G4 by a highly significant amount, but I did like G1 (not 1.5/My Little Pony Tales) back in the day. I still like it. The other generations were terrible in my opinion.

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

Well, this is guaranteed to be one-sided.

[chirox the pony 1,336]

You're on a G4 based forum. What do you expect? Of course I like G4. It has the best show and I couldn't care less for the toys. 

[Megas 28,092]

I never really even bothered with the previous gens and don't intend on looking into them in the future. Hell I doubt I would've given G4 a shot if it didn't get the following it got and piqued my interest

[Rainbowdash_82 404]

I possibly must say I like Generation 4 the most, it seems to have a better art style. The plots are more believable.

They actually have things which make it unique and not just a bunch of colourful horses doing random stuff.

I've never watched any of the previous gens before so I don't know anything about the storyline and stuff, but the art style of the ponies in the previous gens creeps me out tbh

[Blue Moon 6,345]

 

 

Without a doubt, G4. It's objectively the best incarnation of the franchise. Great characters, great stories (especially this year), lessons everyone can relate (especially the mature ones), and overall much better execution than the others. It's the generation that took the franchise back to its unisex roots. The only other generation that's even close to G4 is pre-Tales G1. The animation and storytelling are very dated, but G1 has heart and a mutual respect for all demographics. Tales, G3, and G3.5? They're responsible for introducing the sexist mantra that MLP is "for little girls" and don't deserve any praise whatsoever. G2? Well, it never ever got a chance, so I hold nothing against it.

 

Entertainment is subjective, so you can't really call any incarnation of anything relating to entertainment objectively the best. What you value in a show may differ from what others value, and with that said, saying that G4 is the best is not a fact.

 

However, I can definitely agree that it's my favorite incarnation of the franchise.

[ManaMinori 4,149]

I like each gen to varying degrees. Except for 3.5.

[Dark Qiviut 22,583]

Entertainment is subjective, so you can't really call any incarnation of anything relating to entertainment objectively the best. What you value in a show may differ from what others value, and with that said, saying that G4 is the best is not a fact.

Why does G4 succeed where the others fail?

 

The stories, characterizations, animation, and production in FIM are much more polished and are way better aged than the others. Season five just finished, and it underwent a massive moral and presentation revolution. Each year, the conflicts feel more real, and the morals are much greyer and subtle. Twilight and the Cutie Mark Crusaders showed off how much they matured over the years, Twilight by facing a wrong she committed from the pilot and then using her maturity to convince Starlight to start over and become a mentor, the CMCs by deciding to help Diamond Tiara become a better and truer pony despite knowing her history of terrorizing them.

 

Why do many of FIM's jokes work? Because when they work, they have context. Pinkie's comedy is gag-based, and she's aware of what she does. She has her brand of knowing what she's doing, like her hair standing up when AJ had no idea who Countess Coloratura is, standing on a tree during The Smile Song, and acting like Maud Pie when under Starlight's brainwashing spell. Maud Pie's anti-humor works really well because we're supposed to look for a punchline, but when we don't get it and Maud Pie deadpans her matter-of-fact remarks, the jokes fall right into place. (This is especially the case with her "You're the most basic of jokes" burn to Discord when he acted like a brat on stage.) Testing Testing 1, 2, 3 is of the best comedic episodes of the series because the comedy is so varied, yet are perfectly timed and make sense. The Best Night Ever; The Cutie Map; Party of One; and The Return of Harmony also have so many great jokes, and they work for a variety of reasons.

 

G3 has some decent animation, good visuals, and okay music, but their story and character quality are terrible. Each of G3's female characters are half-dimensional, sexist stereotypes of girls, and often they act really stupid. Their stupidity ain't classic Spongebob Squarepants's endearing slapstick-like stupidity, either, because they're supposed to be taken seriously. Sometimes the morals are horrid, such as Princess Promenade's patronizing implication of "if you're not a princess, then you're not an equal." Tales's animation is much worse, and their entire premise is based on the idea that being cruel to others is tolerable. G3.5 Newborn worsens everything from G3, especially the animation.

 

This ain't to say FIM's perfect. Lord knows I'm the loudest critic to a lot of crap FIM's main show has put out, including its inconsistency. Equestria Girls is poorly made, and I'm very blunt in my comments towards it. I'm not interested in ranting about how bad the main series comics have become, but IDW and DHX are different entities, and I hold nothing against DHX for IDW's follies.

 

As a whole, G4 — especially the main show — is objectively a much better product than the others. And I like G4 the most because it's by far the best one. Only the original Generation 1, as much as that aged, comes close. I don't like the OG, but like I said earlier, I highly respect it for its heart and treating its audience like people; at the least, the OG is decent.

 

Lastly, even if I didn't like FIM or like an older generation more than FIM, I'll say exactly the same thing.