Less mythological creatures introduced as the show goes on

[Soaring Symphony 372]

As much as I have enjoyed both seasons 5 and 6(so far), I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that neither one could match the brilliance that was season 4.  I've spent months pondering why that might be and now, I think I may have figured it out.  Ever since the beginning of season 5, the writers have stopped throwing their interpretations of ancient mythological creatures at us.  throughout seasons 1-4, if they weren't giving their own spin on a pre-existing myth, they were making up their own magical creatures that would be right at home in a Greek myth.  In fact, just to illustrate my point, I'll give a complete run down of all the mythical creatures we've been introduced to in the show in order, one season at a time.  I'm not including sentient animals however, as that's already been done to death in things like Alice in Wonderland (Earth Ponies are the one exception as they have magical abilities distinct from real world work horses (namely, increased physical strength, an accelerated growth rate of the plants they tend to, and sometimes even a sixth sense as demonstrated by Pinkie, Maud, and Cheese sandwich)).

 

Season One

Alicorns, then Unicorns, then Dragons (namely Spike), then Earth Ponies, Then Pegasi, then Manticores, then Gryphons, then Ursas, then Parasprites, then Hydras, then Cockatrices, then Diamond Dogs, then Phoenixes.

 

Season Two

Draconequi(Draconequuses?  I don't know.  Is Discord part of a race or just his own thing?), Bat Ponies (posibly?), Timber Wolves, Windigos, Minotaurs, Cerberus, Changelings

 

Season 3

Chrystal Ponies (sorry that's it for this season)

 

Season 4

Breezies (pony fairies), Chimeras, Orthros, Centaurs

 

Season 5

nothing (unless you count yaks which I don't)

 

Season 6

still nothing (so far)

 

It might have dwindled off a little in seasons 3 and 4 but we were still at least seeing some new mythical creatures regardless.  I can't help but be a little disappointed that this aspect of the show has died off and to be honest, it's kind of made me lose interest in the show a little bit.  Part of the fun of watching this show was seeing what kind of spin the writers would put on ancient myths or what kind or magical creatures they might come up with from scratch.  Sure, we've seen some new lore for things like the Gryphons or the Dragons, but dang it, I want something new.  Not only does introducing new mythic creatures into the world of Equestria keep it fresh and interesting, but it gives fanfic writers and artists something new to work with.  And it's not like the writers have already tapped the mythical well dry yet either.  Just a quick Google search and a Wikipedia article shows otherwise. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_mythological_creatures

They haven't even introduced sea ponies into the show yet.  Come on writers.  Get on that.

 

There's just so much untapped potential here that the writers have squandered for the past season and a half.  It doesn't even have to be Greek myths either.  The writers could just as easily pull from Egyptian mythology, Norse Mythology, Mesopotamian mythology, etc.  Every culture around the world has countless myths and legends that have been passed down through the generations.  There's more than enough material to work with.

 

Please tell me I'm not alone on this viewpoint.

Edited June 13, 2016 by Soaring Symphony

[Jeric 46,836]

Season 5 nothing (unless you count buffalo which I don't)

 

 

Tantabus and whatever Arimaspi was. Both fit the bill of mystical or supernatural creatures. 

 

EDIT:

 

Google told me what they were. Yeah Season Five had stuff. 

[Megas 27,087]

What else can they introduce before they finally get to humans(not counting the EQG universe)? I mean, sea ponies are kind of expected at this point, especially with the movie, but what else? Spider ponies? Snake ponies? Harpy Ponies? Chocobos? Transformers? I mean at that point your just mixing ponies with other species and it's just not as interesting

[cmarston1 5,952]

Lack of seeing any more new locations and better wordlbuilding is what I believe that MLP is missing.

I don't necessarily need to see any new creatures but seeing new mythological beasts in MLP as well as new far away places would be nice.

[Yufery 205]

For what the show is right now, I don't feel anything is really missing or needs to be improved (including worldbuilding; I feel that if the show were to end at S6, it wouldn't be a flaw that we didn't get to see all of Equestria) however it would be interesting to see locations that haven't been explored yet, like Fillydelphia.

 

As for creatures, well they'll only use new ones if they feel like it'd make for a good episode. If they forced them into S6, then the episodes wouldn't have been nearly as good because they would've forced concepts that weren't necessary for the episodes. But, as I said with my opinion on the show's worldbuilding, it would be interesting to see more mythological creatures. Maybe they can do something with a cyclops or the Titans?

[Soaring Symphony 372]

Tantabus and whatever Arimaspi was. Both fit the bill of mystical or supernatural creatures. 

 

EDIT:

 

Google told me what they were. Yeah Season Five had stuff. 

I totally forgot about those

[twiia 1,842]

They could add just one mythical creature and things would be way more interesting.

[Jeric 46,836]

I totally forgot about those

 

 

Yeah, 

 

I do agree with you that I would like to see them figure out a way to integrate more mythological creatures into this season. The fantasy element is one of the more interesting aspects of FiM. 

[Sals 56]

Well the beginning of the series was more around catching attention of little girls. Now it is more story driven (kinda). Plus don't forget that they have that table that send them to mainly pony populated areas, not much to see in pony populated areas other than ponies. Just sayin'

[LHfunk 422]

I didn't actually notice to be honest. I'm not exactly here for the story, more for entertainment and humor.

[M'gann M'orzz 745]

Season 6 introduced a good handful of rather unique new creatures in Gauntlet Of Fire, we just didn't see too much of them but they had pretty unique designs and gimmicks, especially those weird Angler-Super-Eel things that spit giant pillars of Water at freaking Dragons, presumably to eat them. I want to see more of those things, they were metal as hell.

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Season 5 and Season 6 have felt very fillerish. Season 4 had the meta-plot for the Box, and there was an obvious hook for the season of the mane six needing to unlock it and several episodes teasing it.
additionally, they had Discord newly redeemed, with him being a very interesting wild card who was an incredibly important figure in the world.

Adding onto this, the Premier for Season 4 had a very real status quo change made (With the elements being giving up), plus the status quo change from the S3 finale of twilight being made an alicorn, and the finale for S4 was by far the most epic one yet.


S5 and S6 on the other hand have had... the map. that's it. The only real Meta-arc has been "HEEEEEERE'S STARLIGHT GLIMMER!", and if you don't care about starlight, that's kind of a wasted. And even if you DO, its not much of a meta-plot compared to past ones. Add on the premier for this season feeling phoned in and only really altering the world by giving us flurry heart (who most people more or less just forgot existed after the premier), and its just not living up to S4.

S5 and S6 just feel like they're spinning their wheels, while S4 was going somewhere.

[VengefulStrudel 1,486]

Hey @@Soaring Symphony! Just letting you know the thread title was edited to better reflect your topic.

Anyway, I agree that it'd be nice to see more mythological creatures introduced, and perhaps completely new creatures too! Though, in Season 6, they seem to be focusing more on developing the ones we already know about (like dragons) or showing us different kinds of ponies (Manehattan ones, Eastern European ones, Indian ones, etc).

PS: Don't forget about the Bugbear in Season 5~

[Unlikeable Pony 2,698]

Season 5 and Season 6 felt pretty fillerish, this isn't surprising to me. They seem to be just kind of phoning stuff in instead of trying to push the envelope or expand the universe-- For example, the theme's supposedly "explore equestria" and yet we've only explored locations we've already seen: manehattan, crystal empire, hell, the only place we really got new lore about was the dragonlands, and we've already seen it before