Is g4 truly a pony paradise compared to previous generations?

[ManaMinori 4,145]

As much as people within the My Little Pony Generation 4 (Friendship is Magic) fandom are quick to grab their torches and pitchforks and start riots, or flame and hate wars over MLP’s predecessor, which is g3/ g3.5, very few- if any, are willing to look at the facts. I’m Nightmare Muffin, and I’ll be dissecting My Little Pony Generation 3, 3.5, and 4, and taking a look at why the most hated generation is, ironically, the most ideally paradisaical one to date.

 

While g4, Friendship is Magic is widely praised among its fanbase as being the best reboot of the MLP franchise by far, and many tend to watch the show for its escapism- seeking good morals and light, happy colors and relatable characters out of the darkness, devalued morals, and depravity of the real world- I cannot stress enough that in spite of the pastel painted world of rounded deigned and softer characters, Friendship is Magic isn’t the sweet dream world that it appears to be on the surface. Right off the bat, from the first episode, we get a sibling feud, political coups, a pony that is entirely dismissive of the magic of friendship with others of her kind, and a long banished villain threatening to rise out of imprisonment and bring a countless lifetimes of complete and utter darkness to the cute, happy, pastel character’s lives. Ng the friendship, yet? I’m not.

 

Additionally, as the series continues into 8 seasons, we have seen multiple villains of this sort; one who  quite literally sucks and eats the love out of the pastel ponies’ hearts, one who makes an entire Empire of ponies their slaves- chained up, oppressed, depressed, and with PTSD over 1,000 years, one who escaped imprisonment from Hell to forcibly suck the magic and strength out of the ponies- and more slavery and torture is seen at just about every turn in the MLP Movie- when the ponies enter a foreign down beyond their borders, the residents want to sell them to settle their debts, Pirates want to torture them physically and emotionally, an entire capitol city of ponies is put in chains and cages, when a coup happens. It’s terrifying.

 

On top of that, there’s capitalism, tribal racism(the ponies themselves have historic roots where their own kind were at dismissive of their own kind- Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Pony tribes), speciesism (pretty much Zebras, Donkeys, and anything that isn’t a pony are looked down upon and ridiculed by most, if not all ponies. Derogatory phrases like “too cool for mule” are used by the ponies on occasion), social class separation (Canterlot being a near Mount Olympus town where mostly unicorns of elite class reside and are accepted, Cloudsdale being a city where only Pegasi inhabit, and a backwater town in the shadow of the Mount Olympus capital city that originally had been given as land by the Princess upon superior race mountain to a family of mud- I mean, Earth ponies.

 

Now don’t get me wrong, I love this generation of My Little Pony as the next guy, and have been an active watcher for years, but my eyes have been opened to just how far from sweet, pastel, sunshine and rainbows this series is, as I once believed it to be.

 

By contrast, looking at MLP g3/ 3.5, Ponyville and its surrounding areas- Butterfly Island, and Unicornia, seem very much like a paradise. There are no villain of the week attacks on the populace, no slavery, racial divides (initially, the 3 races of Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns lived separately, but only because they didn’t know the other races even existed. Over time, the 3 races began to assimilate).  The ponies all live happily in beautiful surroundings, get along well with one another, and are free from worry from danger, as the general vision of paradise should be.

[Mortar 143]

I think you need to look at it from a production POV.  The reason G4 is so successful is because of the introduction to somewhat darker elements, more "real world" situations.  Without drama/conflict, storytelling can be quite dull, even when it's all sweetness and light.

[SDP40F amtrak 2,447]

G3/g3.5 is overhated I sorry their hatedom is awful

[Jeric 46,860]

This is one of those questions that can't be objectively answered by me since my image of what constitutes paradise is likely not anothers. For example what you describe is more focused around civilization and social elements, where my mental image isn't as focused on that. To you, prior generations probably are more of a paradise (or more accurately stated ... a utopia), but like me your view is informed by taste and bias instead of an objective analysis of all the generations. This isn't just obvious due to your past focus on these topics, but also in your approach to the question. You listed most of the cons of Equestria, yet none of the benefits of their culture. Obviously it has both, and it's positive attributes are often mentioned as a reason why people enjoy the show, drawing a contrast between their view of our society and theirs with favorable comments of the depiction of Equestria. 

Not that there is anything wrong with these biases at all. Bias has adopted these connotations of negativity that is unfortunate. But, if I were to pick between the worlds, I'd much rather live in Equestria than the others. 

11 minutes ago, Twilight Sparkle is best said:

G3/g3.5 is overhated I sorry their hatedom is awful

Eh, people are free to dislike a thing and state it freely, and within reason, be able to do so without risk of being broadbrushed. I can't stand mayonnaise, and I'll be dipped in shit if someone judges my character because I won't eat it.

Elevating any dislike with a vaporous term like hatedom also misses the reality that most people don't obsess about the prior generations of a cartoon anywhere near as much as its fans obsess over talking about it. For instance, most FiM fans won't volunteer their lack of enjoyment of the prior gens, but if solicited by someone they will honestly voice their opinion. Many of these topics creaters then become annoyed that they struggle to find validation of their enjoyment of the earlier shows, which is sad in a way. Like what you like. You don't have to defend as if it is the last slice of bread on Earth. 

Fancy that.

[Lunar Glow 676]

I think that the reasons you described against this generation (though I'm not saying you hate the generation) make my like G4 more. It's for those reasons that the show has become more relevant  and exciting as a TV show should be. The past generations, which I will admit are lovely in their own ways, it seems that they only illustrate happiness and fluff. Fluff can be enjoyable, but compared to this new generation? This beats it by far. The ponies have more to their characters and personalities; even the background ponies seem to have more disposition than "Rainbow Dash who always dresses in style" I completely agree with what you are saying, but I just believe that it is for the better.

[ManaMinori 4,145]

52 minutes ago, Lunar Glow said:

I think that the reasons you described against this generation (though I'm not saying you hate the generation) make my like G4 more. It's for those reasons that the show has become more relevant  and exciting as a TV show should be. The past generations, which I will admit are lovely in their own ways, it seems that they only illustrate happiness and fluff. Fluff can be enjoyable, but compared to this new generation? This beats it by far. The ponies have more to their characters and personalities; even the background ponies seem to have more disposition than "Rainbow Dash who always dresses in style" I completely agree with what you are saying, but I just believe that it is for the better.

generation 1 was anything but fluff. Mind you, its series started off with ponies getting rained on by dragons who kidnapped them, and an evil centaur who turned the captive ponies into dragons, themselves. The series didn't get any fluffier from there. Heck, some of the younger ponies threaten to sell their baby siblings into slavery in one episode, for buck's sake!

[CypherHoof 26,483]

Ok, a number things that "I think" - getting that out of the way to start with so I don't have to keep repeating it per-sentence.

First, the world of FiM equestria IS pretty dark; just over a thousand years ago, before the births of Celestia and Luna but during the lifespan of Starswirl, ponies were threatened with extinction; their petty squabbles had attracted a predator, the Windigos, who fed on their discord and brought with them eternal winter. Ponies were FORCED to cooperate, or face their own inevitable demise.

In their union, came a new hope - no doubt engineered, again, by Starswirl - the Royal Sisters, who embodied elements of all THREE races of pony, and were given dominion. Starswirl then reclused himself and the other powerful Pillars indefinitely - but left behind a seed of power, the Tree of Harmony, that grew into a strong protector of the land - in fact, the Royal sisters had to borrow from its power to defeat dark elements from outside of their own domain.

Yet little harmony was actually to be found; Canterlot, home of the royal ponies, was very much dominated by the same mindset as the original feuding tribes, and the Tree remained but a tool - to be wielded as a weapon, but not strongly enough to truely achieve friendship.  Outside of Celestia's rule, the lands remained dark and dank, and even within her domain, only the cost of disharmony, with the reminder once per year at Hearthswarming, kept an uneasy balance.

Here our story begins; one unicorn pony, arrogant in many ways, and dismissive of the value of friendship, is sent to interact with five other ponies, each of which share a destiny, and embody one of the Elements of the tree - and the township they live in is a very different place indeed, an oasis of positive interaction (mostly I suspect prompted by Pinkie; in her absence, even briefly, the town degenerates rapidly). Depending on how you feel about the Chessmaster theory, this is more or less by design; AJ's ancestors founded the town, by invite from Celestia herself; Fluttershy and Dashie would appear to have been assigned there, and Rarity of course is a local (leaving only how Pinkie ended up there to be a mystery, but hey, Pinkie. She could literally have got lost one day looking for a stray balloon and found herself there)

If this was a classic "boys" cartoon, all this would just be ignored of course - the lead hero would be sent to town, find five more stout and true men working tirelessly there, and form a taskforce when the big bad enemy turned up - but for a girls cartoon this is breaking new ground, and the challenges they meet and overcome along the way that cement them into a team are shown as cementing their friendship.  That this is the key to unlocking their power, and that Friendship IS magic, is core Pony - and not a bad message.

But at the heart of this is that ponyville *IS* different, just as Equestria is different; each Pony has the mark of their special talent, that thing that sets them apart and makes them unique, literally bonded to their flank, and in Ponyville, those differences are celebrated and appreciated; contrast with (again) canterlot, where ponies strive to get ahead by pushing others down.  Not that THAT doesn't happen in ponyville of course, but it is strangely contained; we have the examples of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Diamond Tiara rapidly finds that she is on the wrong path; her own father truely appreciates that ponyville supported and encouraged him to reach his current position of wealth, and both eagerly joins in with community activities and pushes his reluctant daughter to do so too. Of course during her redemption episode, it is presented that Diamond Tiara was put on her wrong path by her mother, and desperately wishes to be shown how to rejoin the herd and be valued for being herself - which of course happens because redemption is a big part of how the FiM formula works.

Slowly, this is spreading; Rarity and AJ's mission is a good example, where they bring a sense of community back to an area that had lost it - having pride in their community, each pony doing just a little to make things better for everypony there instead of seeing the huge task as too big for one pony alone; The map table, assigning small groups of ponies a task to make some area of equestria just a little better, can be seen as the same thing just one level higher, and leveraging the rediculously overpowered ponies that are the mane cast.  Similarly, the S8 expansion shows that the scope is gradually increasing, with the map table determined to spread ponyville-ism to every corner of the world it knows about. Spike is of course on the forefront of much of the expansion, prior to S8 - the Dragon Lands, the Crystal Empire, and the Changeling Kingdom all have his claw in it - and Zecora, once Twilight forced acceptance of her on ponyville, has been a key player in many situations.

But to bring us back to the original idea - no, the world of FiM is *not* a happy, fluffy one - and from the very start, with NMM and the Everfree Forest, it was shown not to be. But Celestia has lit a flame at the heart of ponyville that is gradually driving back the darkness, and it is the story of how that flame is growing that is the spine of the FiM storyline that spans its many seasons.  But it also has incredible depth - each episode rarely stands alone, but forms part of a grand, sweeping arc that gives us character development and builds upon its successes. The ponies live in a human-like town with human-like tasks, making them more relatable, and each of the mane cast are given solid personalities with glaring flaws that are gradually addressed (if not fixed) as the story progresses. I just don't get that feeling from the earlier incarnations of MLP - it just feels shallow by comparison, which doesn't mean the earlier incarnations were bad of themselves, just that FiM has a solidness to it that few other series can match.

Edited May 20, 2018 by CypherHoof

[SDP40F amtrak 2,447]

4 hours ago, Jeric said:

This is one of those questions that can't be objectively answered by me since my image of what constitutes paradise is likely not anothers. For example what you describe is more focused around civilization and social elements, where my mental image isn't as focused on that. To you, prior generations probably are more of a paradise (or more accurately stated ... a utopia), but like me your view is informed by taste and bias instead of an objective analysis of all the generations. This isn't just obvious due to your past focus on these topics, but also in your approach to the question. You listed most of the cons of Equestria, yet none of the benefits of their culture. Obviously it has both, and it's positive attributes are often mentioned as a reason why people enjoy the show, drawing a contrast between their view of our society and theirs with favorable comments of the depiction of Equestria. 

Not that there is anything wrong with these biases at all. Bias has adopted these connotations of negativity that is unfortunate. But, if I were to pick between the worlds, I'd much rather live in Equestria than the others. 

Eh, people are free to dislike a thing and state it freely, and within reason, be able to do so without risk of being broadbrushed. I can't stand mayonnaise, and I'll be dipped in shit if someone judges my character because I won't eat it.

Elevating any dislike with a vaporous term like hatedom also misses the reality that most people don't obsess about the prior generations of a cartoon anywhere near as much as its fans obsess over talking about it. For instance, most FiM fans won't volunteer their lack of enjoyment of the prior gens, but if solicited by someone they will honestly voice their opinion. Many of these topics creaters then become annoyed that they struggle to find validation of their enjoyment of the earlier shows, which is sad in a way. Like what you like. You don't have to defend as if it is the last slice of bread on Earth. 

Fancy that.

Tell me about  it they are worst than princess twilight haters and Equestria girls haters and anti bronies like mixers 

But get a lot butthurt haters hated the G3 and G3.5 

 

[Midnight Chimes 69]

I don't hate G3, I mean let's face it, most of that hatred comes out of sheer in security about watching a kids show to begin with. But I will say it is boring, and there is a reason for that. Yes G3 may have been more paradisaical than G4, but if we're talking about a value judgement of quality, G4 is better no question. In any case good utopian fiction, which is what Friendship is Magic is, doesn't need to be about a perfect world. There can be room for development, challenges to overcome. It is how they are dealt with which makes the difference. Perhaps there is a demon wanting to bring doom and darkness to the pastel ponies' land, but do they succeed? Of course not. They are won over by the power of friendship and all is well!

[heavens-champion 1,905]

I wouldn't say it's a complete paradise. I mean, there are tons of monsters who would love to have ponies for dinner (and I don't mean inviting them over for dinner). 

[Brainstorm 4,112]

I think G4 is good, the others are good too, but G4 seems to be the best.