Do you think that the show shifted focus after Season 3 to character building?

[Slashy 101]

It seems like after Season 3 (and Season 2 kind of did this as well) much of the lore building and world building shifted to focusing more on characters, I feel that's a reason why we are reaching end game with characters so quickly. There is still so much of the world left unexplored, even with the Cutie Map we went to a location we already saw (Manehatten) and an undefined location that really had nothing noteworthy about it.

 

We really don't see any unique creatures anymore in Equestria either, not even anything original like the Parasprites.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

What are you talking about? This seasons literal theme is Exploring Equestria. We've seen more of the dragon lands and had a whole lore building episode about that, including seeing just how big Dragons can get. We've seen the Twittermites which were a unique creature even if it was in Appleblooms head (personally thought that was kind of a cop out). The Cmc are now going off and doing their own things. Remember the Daring Do episode and all THAT world building? Remember the alternate universes? Remember The Griffons homeland? 

 

It sounds to me like there might be a case of  "season 1 and 2 were the best and everything else sucks" mentality. May I point out for a second that Season 1 has NOT aged well, and while I love season 2 there have been several that top it in terms of quality AND world building. 

[Luna 831 466]

I think with season 6 it is just the beginning not the end.

[Slashy 101]

What are you talking about? This seasons literal theme is Exploring Equestria. We've seen more of the dragon lands and had a whole lore building episode about that, including seeing just how big Dragons can get. We've seen the Twittermites which were a unique creature even if it was in Appleblooms head (personally thought that was kind of a cop out). The Cmc are now going off and doing their own things. Remember the Daring Do episode and all THAT world building? Remember the alternate universes? Remember The Griffons homeland? 

 

It sounds to me like there might be a case of  "season 1 and 2 were the best and everything else sucks" mentality. May I point out for a second that Season 1 has NOT aged well, and while I love season 2 there have been several that top it in terms of quality AND world building. 

Season 1 is pretty darn terrible actually, one of the worst, but I chalk that up to it being an earlier time in the show, the more serious tone the show, and needing to build the characters.

 

I do think Season 6 has done much better at exploring existing worlds, and I think it is a huge leap over Season 5's map episodes. The alternate universes are kind of the opposite of world building, we saw them because we'll never see them again. I still would like to see more adorable creatures like the Parasprites and Twitttermites, hell more fantastical creatures in general, we are still lacking since we had them all the time in S1.

[cmarston1 5,964]

To be honest, even though the show takes place in a fantasy setting and has some actually interesting aspects of lore, such as Celestia, Luna, Scorpan and Tirek, and Starswirl the Bearded, I don't really think the show is that great at worldbuliding.

Such as how for a season called Explore Equestria, we are still basically only ever seeing Ponyville, Canterlot, The Crystal Empire, and Manehatten as actual locations for episodes.

Sure we had the Dragonsland in Gauntlet of Fire (which was great) but besides that the whole marketing for the season has been rather disappointing.

We have an actual map of Equestria filled with rather interesting locations that I would love to see such as Las Pegasus and Hollow Shades, but I highly doubt we are ever going to see them in the show.

Hopefully the movie will actually give us some new locations for once.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

Season 1 is pretty darn terrible actually, one of the worst, but I chalk that up to it being an earlier time in the show, the more serious tone the show, and needing to build the characters.

 

I do think Season 6 has done much better at exploring existing worlds, and I think it is a huge leap over Season 5's map episodes. The alternate universes are kind of the opposite of world building, we saw them because we'll never see them again. I still would like to see more adorable creatures like the Parasprites and Twitttermites, hell more fantastical creatures in general, we are still lacking since we had them all the time in S1.

I'm sure they'll bring more creatures into the mix. In fact I think they are going to be introducing a ton of sapient races pretty soon if that one scene of Gift of the Maud Pie is any indicator.