I wish "Friendship Is Magic" was way more darker than it is

[AlicornSpell 142]

The show is a vector for exploring adult themes in subtle ways. Some may be unintentional, but they are there. It adds to the depth of the show. Death, disability, depression, fear of failure, feeling lost, and abandonment are very much adult themes addressed by the show (or imprinted there by the audience). They just dress this up in a heavy coat of optimism.

 

Should the show be dark? When someone says 'dark' my mind tends to go to films like Empire Strikes Back, but I've seen some refer to dark as yandere kind of stuff. The show's tone should not go the route of the former, and the later ... hell no.

 

The best analogy I can come up with is this, you shouldn't look at a bowl of vanilla ice cream and be upset it isn't mint chocolate chip. Just go get a flavor that suits your taste.

 

See the thing is, I want the show to deal with very dark and mature themes more straight forward. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic never directly dealt with very dark and mature themes like death. Disney movies like "The Lion King" and "Bambi" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" deal with very dark and mature themes straight forward, and they are kid movies. So why can't My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic deal with those dark and mature themes like the way that Disney movies tend to?

 

Also I'm pretty sure that the writers of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic probably had a lot of ideas and stories that Hasbro rejected because they thought that they were too "dark and mature" for the show.

Edited February 17, 2017 by AlicornSpell

[ProbablyNotLyra 94]

To restate what has probably already been said, MLP literally can't be darker. I mean come on, Hasbro called for a cease and desist on Fighting is Magic, and that was a simple fighting game. Plus.. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The whole story is about how friendship can fix things. Maybe they could do a pet dying in an episode sometime, but I really don't think they'll ever touch on anything like murder or death of ponies. Heck, Granny Smith probably won't be dying ever. Good for us though, huh? Imagine how the fandom would react the day the Mane 6 die... oh goddesses.. I made myself sad..

Edited February 17, 2017 by ProbablyNotLyra

[Olsen1987 133]

come to think of something...life is dark and bad enough as it is.
maybe it would be for the best if MLP stayed the way it is.

[Steel Accord 6,658]

Look, I love dark stuff as much as the next guy, but murder? That's pushing it. Plus the themes that show up can be plenty mature. "Mature" doesn't mean "violent, disturbing, or threatening" if anything, that just makes it more childish.

 

I men, who among these two is more mature? Jayne Cobb (Firefly) or Iroh? (Avatar: the Last Airbender)

 

Jayne shoots, shags, and shatters trust in a way that could be construed as "manly." He does what he wants, when he wants it, and no one can tell him otherwise. He's the masculine id, personified. Yet he's also a total loser! He's dumb as a brick, has no impulse control, and he DOES in fact answer to someone. Someone who can scare him into a corner despite all of Jayne's bluster.

 

On the other hand, Iroh is perpetually smiling, loves games, plays musical instruments, and his seemingly disconnected musings which flummox his skeptical peers contain pearls of true wisdom. Gee, does that sound familiar?

 

 

Maturity is recognizing one's own shortcomings and prioritizing what truly matters. The friendship lessons this show teaches are meant for kids but they are applicable as adults. The things we learn as children "don't lie, don't steal, don't hit" don't become less relevant as we get older. If anything, they become more important as the consequences of not heeding them become much greater. Hell, for most of us, this show is what allowed us to become better men.

 

Don't take your sibling's feelings for granted. "Sisterhooves Social"

 

Don't feel afraid to ask for help. "Applebucking Season"

 

Sometimes you're just not going to like someone but you can still respect them based on a mutual loved one. "Maud Pie"

 

Sit down and focus on doing your work, even if it requires some help focusing. "Flutter Brutter"

 

Honestly, I could go on. The show gets a little dark when it needs to and our imaginations take the implications to their logical conclusions. That's enough for me. What really my point is. The show is actually applicable in one's adult life in the same way a Disney movie is. Meant for kids, can help adults.

[ggg-2 3,550]

To restate what has probably already been said, MLP literally can't be darker. I mean come on, Hasbro called for a cease and desist on Fighting is Magic, and that was a simple fighting game. Plus.. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The whole story is about how friendship can fix things. Maybe they could do a pet dying in an episode sometime, but I really don't think they'll ever touch on anything like murder or death of ponies. Heck, Granny Smith probably won't be dying ever. Good for us though, huh? Imagine how the fandom would react the day the Mane 6 die... oh goddesses.. I made myself sad..

 

I'm pretty sure Fighting is Magic got a C&D because of copyright, not dark themes. Anyway, no. FIM should not be dark. Hasbro wouldn't allow it, and neither would the FCC.

Edited February 17, 2017 by ggg-2

[man dude man 555]

I just am not sure if that really is the element of Friendship is Magic, Friendship is Magic I think is more so the kind of themed escape from those types of themes. I think you can be a little more violent, and have some dark contrast realism, you can have characters with very dark ambitions, but I would say that it should reflect more of a possible shonen style villain plotline, like the villains can be pretty dark, and have a darker background, but ultimately, nobody needs to violently die in friendship is magic. I do think that someone "passing away" could bring a mature story to the show, but this is also a show for younger children, you can drop something sad on them, as long as you have a positive resolution. 

[Will Guide 21,325]

Maturity is recognizing one's own shortcomings and prioritizing what truly matters. The friendship lessons this show teaches are meant for kids but they are applicable as adults. The things we learn as children "don't lie, don't steal, don't hit" don't become less relevant as we get older. If anything, they become more important as the consequences of not heeding them become much greater. Hell, for most of us, this show is what allowed us to become better men.

 

Don't take your sibling's feelings for granted. "Sisterhooves Social"

 

Don't feel afraid to ask for help. "Applebucking Season"

 

Sometimes you're just not going to like someone but you can still respect them based on a mutual loved one. "Maud Pie"

 

Sit down and focus on doing your work, even if it requires some help focusing. "Flutter Brutter"

 

Honestly, I could go on. The show gets a little dark when it needs to and our imaginations take the implications to their logical conclusions. That's enough for me. What really my point is. The show is actually applicable in one's adult life in the same way a Disney movie is. Meant for kids, can help adults.

I quite agree with you, Steel. I especially loved Flutter Brutter for a character that becomes surprisingly relatable by the 3rd act; The ending, song, AND moral actually encouraged me to finally finish college, which I've just done a few months ago!

[Marimo 555]

 

 

So why can't My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic deal with those dark and mature themes like the way that Disney movies tend to?

Different execs and companies are in charge. Disney's more about just making movies, so a bit of darkness and maturity is fine. Especially if they're deliberately adapting darker subject matter, like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

 

Hasbro on the other hand, while it values its shows and movies, they're ultimately meant to help advertise the toys and merchandise because Hasbro is first and foremost a toy company that makes studios or makes deals with them to make shows and movies based on their properties. They want to target MLP to a specific demographic, young girls, and while they may branch out to other demographics, they're not going to want their main source of advertisement, the show, to shift into something darker and more mature that may alienate their demographic or make parents want their children to avoid.

 

Plus it's also likely that the show staff itself doesn't want a darker, edgier show. While I'm sure there are moments where they've been asked to tone things down, those are usually more just moments where they didn't know something would be considered too risky, like Twilight throwing punches being too violent. I don't think they've ever seriously wanted to make it darker and have things like villains going around killing ponies. I'm pretty sure they've even said they don't want to change it from how light hearted it's been from the beginning. You may want it darker, but what you want isn't going to apply to everyone and the crew and plenty of fans would probably prefer it remaining more light hearted.

[Jeric 46,834]

See the thing is, I want the show to deal with very dark and mature themes more straight forward. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic never directly dealt with very dark and mature themes like death. Disney movies like "The Lion King" and "Bambi" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" deal with very dark and mature themes straight forward, and they are kid movies. So why can't My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic deal with those dark and mature themes like the way that Disney movies tend to?

 

Also I'm pretty sure that the writers of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic probably had a lot of ideas and stories that Hasbro rejected because they thought that they were too "dark and mature" for the show.

Marimo pretty much covered what my retort was going to be regarding the Disney question. I do want to address the first statement you made ...

 

The 'straight forward' argument you made reminds me of a discussion with someone five or six years ago regarding shock horror vs. suspense horror. He was trying to explain why he felt that Hitchcock was passe and outdated compared to the the Saw films which is claimed were the wave of the future. I'll say now what I said then - while the idea sledgehammer is the muscle behind entertainment, nuance is at the heart of artistic narrative.

 

Basically, agree to disagree on which is better I suppose ... Hitchcock is still the way to go.

[Fractured 2,683]

Honestly depends on what you mean by darker. Would I prefer MLP be the type of show were sex gore and other are promoted.

 

No.

 

Would I prefer MLP be the type of show where the characters act and grow like real people, which means sometimes taking real losses? Things that actually meant something to them, and couldn't be recovered in thirty minutes, (or even at all) but they still learned to accept it and move on, because loss is one of the most human things, and so is growing from it?

 

I would.

 

I was disappointed when they glossed over the destruction of Twilight's tree house, and what it actually meant to her. Instead we got a sad look and a side glance, and then the rest of the episode, buried by her friends antics. We got twenty minutes of them trying to learn a lesson they should've probably learned in Season one, but that's for a different thread.

 

Positivity doesn't bug me; some of the greatest moments that I actually praise this show over are the heartwarming ones (It still gets to me how Pinkie Pie actually nuzzled Twilight in Lesson Zero, Twilight's words to Spike in the Crystal Empire). What bugs me is that this show usually seems to fail to take the extra step and examine the consequences of its own actions and ideas. Which not only hurts the world (as lore is panned out, but never explored), but it also has the side effect of creating distance from the actual characters themselves. For every moment we get like this, the show pulls back before we ever recognize the depth of what's going on.

 

Why was Pinkie Pie so worried in Maud Pie when she heard that Twilight and co didn't want to be friends with her? You'd think it'd be something simple, but that reaction never comes back again over the course of the show, or at least not in that magnitude.

 

Where did Discord's warped conception of friendship come from, Starting out in Return of Harmony? Is he still caught up over the events of Twilight's Kingdom? Is he not concerned with the M6 seem willing to turn on him at a moment's notice?

 

How was Scootaloo affected when she was mocked for not being able to fly in Flight to the Finish? How does she feel about flying in general? 

 

How does Twilight feel about being a princess? Does she ever regret Celestia's decision? Does she wish she could be "normal" again?

 

It's just the extra thought and just having the moments there that could make MLP that much more impactful. Those moments where the show doesn't run to blood and guts, or run to even primarily sad moments, but just drops out of the colorful atmosphere for an instant to give us some point of saliency. Of which we've seen on occasion; Dash's moment in Mysterious Mare-Do-Well, Spike's Moment in Owl's Well that Ends Well, Big Mac and Appleboom's heart to heart. Which don't even run for a percentage of the episodes they're in; these don't have to be episodic focuses. But we only seem to get them once or twice every season. Everything else is based primarily on transient things that begin in die in the same episode. Is there character development in MLP? Of course; just looking at Fluttershy from Season one to now should tell you that. But we've been left with little in the way of any sort of permeance to definitively cling to these characters with. New venues are added all of the time, but when none are explored (or kept), it begins to feel transitory. I don't feel like I know any of these characters as well as I do the ones from Avatar, Steven's Universe, or even something more blatantly cartoony and typically non-serious like Shaoilin Showdown or Star vs The Forces of Evil.

 

Now where does this draw back to "dark moments?" Implications. Stepping into a character's thought process and examining implications (for both them and the show) isn't always a positive thing; going deeper isn't always a positive things. You have to make definitive choices when you draw that line, and sometimes those choices are real to the character, but they aren't the happiest to contemplate, but they're unlikely to change. But it draws a deeper impact that the show is continually missing, because it's often afraid to dip its toes in the water. Is it necessary for FIM to do this? Not particularly; as plenty of people have pointed out, it caters rather well to its intended audience. Even though doing this wouldn't exactly alienate kids, it's not needed for the show to be watchable, or even enjoyable. But is the show losing out on something special by choosing to toe its own line, and stray away from any or most sources that would generate true lasting impact?

 

I can reply with a definite.

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

Not likely going to happen as it would go against the age demographic of the show. Also, the writers wouldn't be able to implement such ideas since they would need Hasbro's approval, and I doubt they would give them the time of day.

[SaburoDaimando 1,196]

I'd like to see it a bit darker, but not too much to where characters start dying.