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Would The Show Have Lasted 7 Seasons Under Lauren Faust?


Denim&Venöm

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Yes, she indeed did create G4, crafted the first season, consulted on the second, etc. But would her direction have garnered enough support from fans, the network and Hasbro? Would she have stopped the show earlier, choosing to end on a high note than draw things out? Would her ideas have kept the attention of the fans for 7+ years? She wasn't in favor of Equestria girls. How would that not coming to be have affected the reach and appeal of the show? Under Faust, would MLP have had enough steam to green light a movie? MLP is nearing a decade in existence, but woudl it have lasted this long under the OG management?  

 

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Faust, as far as I know, wanted the show to end after season 3, a typical run for a show like this, which would have been duuuumb. This is further indicated by her departure after season 3. While I agree with her disapproval towards Equestria Girls, I overall am glad that she left, because we now have so much more FiM because of it. So many new memories and amazing moments. Some blunders here and there, but the great moments shine through.

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Season One is the only season she had a significant hand in, and I consider it mid-tier at best. I have no idea how many of the weird design choices for season one was her ideas or Hasbro’s, it’s hard to make any judgements. I give her full credit for laying the ground work and getting the ball rolling, but I can’t really say how the show would have evolved if she stayed on.

I don’t think the show would have continued beyond season three if she had a say in it though.

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I'm very skeptical it would've. The episodes she is credited with writing are far from the best, and she was apparently hard to work with when it came to creative direction. I can see it lasting season 3, but I believe that would've been the end of it.

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   I doubt it, I am grateful to Lauren for being the primary reason we have the show we have today. She laid the groundwork and started the foundations, but honestly, I think had she stayed, the show would have ended in season 3, underwhelming and lacking. She is talented, but I think the creative visions of Meghan, Haber, and hopefully Nicole are more complex and interesting than anything she had in mind. The lore and world has expanded so much since her departure. Without seasons, 4, 5, and 7, I wouldn't love the show nearly as much as I do. 
I don't think the show would have lasted to s7, or 8, or 9 without Lauren, but I also think that if it did, the quality wouldn't hold up to what we have now.

Edited by Ryanmahaffe
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Faust is a great creative mind in animation, but she tends to move on from one project to another rather quickly. Her leaving was likely something that was going to happen eventually even if Hasbro and her saw eye to eye. It's just in her DNA. I'm not sure if she is naturally restless, gets bored, or just hates not having full control. Probably a combination of all three. 

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1 hour ago, Denim&Venom said:

Would she have stopped the show earlier, choosing to end on a high note than draw things out?

I don't think the decision would have been hers. She left the series during the second season and Hasbro decided to continue it anyway with other crew – I think they would have done the same anyway if the show was successful enough, regardless of when she decided to leave it (which would probably have happened at some point due to creative differences).

As for the quality of the show if she had stayed longer, I don't think it's possible to determine that. I've seen a lot of people say (both in this thread and elsewhere) that the episodes she wrote weren't particularly good. I agree to some extent ("Friendship Is Magic" is good but nowhere near my favorites, "The Ticket Master" was the episode that got me hooked but there are still better ones). I don't think these episodes are entirely representative of her as a writer, though. Back when she was a writer for Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, I remember most Foster's fans considered her the best writer of the whole series. Though it's of course possible that her writing style was more appropriate for that show than MLP. I would assume that her influence on the early episodes of FIM extends beyond the scripts. It's not even rare for showrunners to contribute only a few scripts but still have an obvious overall influence on the show in question (speaking of Foster's, Craig McCracken only wrote a few episodes of the series he created but no one would have denied his significance to it).

The character designs are Faust's most obvious contribution to MLP. If you look at the drawings she did of G1 ponies a couple of years earlier, you can easily see where the show's visual style came from. Applejack looks exactly the way she does in the show, and the others mostly differ in color. And from what I've read, the visual style has been one of the main selling points for many people deciding to check out the show.

I enjoy both the episodes when Faust was involved and the ones after she left. But it's really impossible to say what would have happened, though the show would obviously have been different in some aspects.

Edited by Tacodidra
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It's hard for me to imagine a world where Faust retains creative control of My Little Pony for the show's entire run. I do imagine such a show would have ended in season 3, for better and for worse, but I just can't imagine a toy-driven show allowing her full creative control, let alone to end the show so early. This My Little Pony probably would have had a similar trajectory in popularity to where it is now: remains at peak popularity for a decent handful of years, then steadily drops off. 

In quality, while Faust's own episodes are a bit simple, they're also in the early goings before the show found its voice. I still think the pilot is incredibly strong for its place in the show, and her ideas of how the characters should behave were probably more grounded than the direction the show rapidly wound up taking. I personally feel that the show had increased tremendously in polish, creativity, and nuance just over the course of season 1, so I can only imagine it would have continued to improve as it went on, with season 2 perhaps being similar to what it wound up being and season 3 being a bit more... polished, maybe? I can't really knock it for lack of creativity.

After that point, she'd leave, and it's hard to say from there. Maybe it would spend a season coasting on past successes, maybe it would more quickly try to be more sophisticated, maybe it would try to be something entirely different from what came before. There's no way to know. 

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While I do believe it was important that Lauren Faust was involved with the first two seasons, I think the show itself wouldn't have really gone anywhere. None of the characters would be nearly as developed as they are today, actually the show probably would have ended after season 3, like Faust had wanted it too. If she had stayed on and then decided to pull the plug on the show and got Hasbro to go along with it, we obviously wouldn't have the very large and vibrant community that we have today, which would be really sad..... :(

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If Faust was at the helm.

There would have been a full 26 episode Season 3.

A lot of the character development would have been tied up. She probably thought rehashing the same lessons would get old.

There may have been a new villain.

Twilight would have still been a unicorn at the end with a different story path.

Faust leaves her position.

Then the Season 4 delay and it carries on building on Season 3 with whatever Hasbro wants.

Faust could be tapped to write a few episodes.

 

Edited by Singe
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It's hard to say how many seasons we would have out of the show if Faust had stayed on. Her main issue seemed to be Hasbro's insistence on using freelance writers. She likes to have meetings and in-house writers so everyone can discuss ideas together and be on the same page. BUT that costs money...so Hasbro pretty much gave her a broom closet for these meetings (a limited number at that if I remember correctly) complete with some whiteboard or pegboard thing that kept falling apart. Communicating with remote freelance writers is a more difficult and slower process.

Also don't forget she is in L.A. and ALSO had to correspond with DHX in Vancouver. A lot of times she worked long hours isolated in her home office. She mentioned communication as a big issue in a few interviews.

I don't know what her ultimate vision was so I have know idea how many seasons it would have taken. I do think the freelance writing setup and writer turnover has made for some clunkyness along the way since, but I think the writers overall have been doing a pretty good job.

In a nutshell, she ended up working the gears more than the keyboard and paintbrush.

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Edited by Cirrus.
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It the writers, the producer, the animators, the musicians who worked for show for 7 years are the one who drive the show this far, the one WHO STAY. Lauren abaddoned the show after S2 and she not gonna let this show last more than 3 seasons anyway, if she doesnt leave in S2, she will leave in S3 or S4 due to her problems with Hasbro. It not the staffs are perfect anyway, maybe they dont have beautiful vision that Lauren has, maybe they are even suck, but they stay and still make great episodes and this show last more than 8 seasons, its good. Under Hasbro toy promotion tendencies, the writers still make quality episodes as hard as they can (despise Magical Mystery Cure however you want, i still think it is a good episode even under Hasbro influence). That why i really appreciate modern episodes, they just had so many restraints, so many bullshit idea that the company shove their throats but the staffs still make it work and its admirable (Flurry Heart is toy relate bullshit, right?! Do you find she is more adorable in S7? You started to like her, right!?).

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1 hour ago, Nature Tune said:

Probably nt. I heard she didnt intend for sny more seasons after three. What would happen to EG?

Twilight wouldn't be an alicorn princess. EG would continue to happen as is.

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21 hours ago, Jeric said:

Faust is a great creative mind in animation, but she tends to move on from one project to another rather quickly. Her leaving was likely something that was going to happen eventually even if Hasbro and her saw eye to eye. It's just in her DNA. I'm not sure if she is naturally restless, gets bored, or just hates not having full control. Probably a combination of all three. 

She seems to like the creative/development process and not so much the actual running of things. She even says in few interviews something to the tune of, "If a project isn't fun for the time invested anymore it's time to move on."

Does that make her a bad person? I sure don't think so. If she can get away with doing what she enjoys, more power too her. If she likes the actual process of developing new projects and can keep landing jobs good for her. It's her life. Remember too, her husband is successful in the business too so they're probably not hurting for money.

If I had money, you bet I'd be much more picky in what I do and don't do.:smug:

 

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Lauren Faust was the reason the show has lasted to seven seasons as it is, along with the writers she brought in (few of whom remain, sadly). The Brony fandom came about during her tenure and it was due to her work on the show.

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On 12/21/2017 at 5:20 PM, Jeric said:

Faust is a great creative mind in animation, but she tends to move on from one project to another rather quickly. Her leaving was likely something that was going to happen eventually even if Hasbro and her saw eye to eye. It's just in her DNA. I'm not sure if she is naturally restless, gets bored, or just hates not having full control. Probably a combination of all three. 

She also seems to greatly prefer working with her husband, Craig McCracken, and it’s likely she would have moved on to work with him on Wander Over Yonder, even if things with Hasbro were more to her liking. There were many different reasons she moved on from the show, I also think just blaming Hasbro is hardly fair.

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There would have been some differences. For example, AFAIK Faust wanted Scootaloo to be an orphan + never fly. She would have been a lot more definitive that AJ's parents are dead. I've heard that Hasbro forbade both ideas as too dark for little kids. IMO, that would have been the big difference -Hasbro saw the show as just for little kids & Faust visualized a broader appeal.

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Season 3 would be the major changer being 26 instead of 13 episodes.

Compared to now certain story elements like Fluttershy's shyness, Cutie Mark Crusaders, and Rainbow Dash Wonderbolts would not have been drawn out. Instead those would have been concluded allowing the characters to be open to shift to a new phase of development with some new direction.

An example would be Rainbow Dash getting in the Wonderbolts by Season 3 and then they would shift to give her something like Wonderbolt adventures/action. Yes, RD gets in like that because there has to be payoff since she was focused on impressing them in Season 1 and 2.

 

 

 

Edited by Singe
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  • 4 years later...

That's a tough question. I started to like FiM way more after she left and the seasons even improved more and more. But she created it in the first place, so without her, it wouldn't be there at all. I think I'm happy with exactly the way it all happened. :)

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