Should EqG become an 11 or 22 minute series?

[Toon4Thought 274]

22 hours ago, AlexanderThrond said:

I'd prefer for the 3-minute shorts to be interspersed with 11-minute episodes, or for 22-minute ones to be intermittently peppered throughout the season.

I'm not sure how Hasbro could make that work, though - would that fit the advertising formats of either YouTube or Discovery Family? Would it be confusing to children and parents? I'm sort of skeptical of switching to a longer-form series, because I like what we have and I'm afraid that it'll be changed into something not as good. The potential is there, though. 

If the way FiM is currently run isn't confusing to kids and parents, I doubt this would be. Especially assuming this mostly remains with YouTube in mind. And yes, 11 minutes would fit their advertising format as well as Discovery Family's (as irrelevant as the latter may be) - look at Hanazuki. In fact, they use an 11-minute format for the specials, which IMO makes it more frustrating because it's like, they could make proper length stories if they wanted to, and they just don't. I agree them being mixed with shorts would be best, I just wish they weren't 80% of the material, because it feels like being stuck to that format is simply holding them back.

Personally, I think if they kept on the level of the specials quality-wise (both the 44 and 22 min ones) and were just able to regularly have a good runtime for it all, I think it would easily exceed the main series IMO.

19 hours ago, CypherHoof said:

Would like to see longer story arcs (like FiM has) instead of oneshots, but as it would seem to be mostly a youtube thing, I thought the whole point was that they didn't have to be constrained to hard timeslots to fit broadcast tv programming (or am I missing something?)

To be frank, I think it would be best off becoming full-on serialized, with some shorter story arcs going on alongside the already-existing overarching ones. So many pieces are there, just waiting to be taken advantage of, and I think this format is the best way to at least mostly guarantee that they do.

As long as it remembers to remain character-driven, I think it could not only work, but make it stand out in a unique and beneficial manner.

Edited February 1, 2019 by Toon4Thought

[Thrond 3,263]

1 hour ago, Toon4Thought said:

If the way FiM is currently run isn't confusing to kids and parents, I doubt this would be. Especially assuming this mostly remains with YouTube in mind. And yes, 11 minutes would fit their advertising format as well as Discovery Family's (as irrelevant as the latter may be) - look at Hanazuki. In fact, they use an 11-minute format for the specials, which IMO makes it more frustrating because it's like, they could make proper length stories if they wanted to, and they just don't. I agree them being mixed with shorts would be best, I just wish they weren't 80% of the material, because it feels like being stuck to that format is simply holding them back.

 Personally, I think if they kept on the level of the specials quality-wise (both the 44 and 22 min ones) and were just able to regularly have a good runtime for it all, I think it would easily exceed the main series IMO.

I don't personally equate length with quality - I personally think Equestria Girls is already a fair bit more entertaining than Friendship is Magic, though of course that is just me; by the same token, I don't hold the 22-minute Equestria Girls specials from 2017 in high esteem at all, and think both of the 45-minute specials were made worse by their attempts to be more substantial. So I'm not opposed to the idea of a longer EqG show if done right, but since these shorts are by far my favourite part about the wider franchise right now, I'm fine going without. 

Do you mean they use an 11-minute format for Hanazuki specials? Or are you talking about how the 45-minute stories are cut up? Certainly, that would be one way to make ads work. What I personally want wouldn't have a regular schedule, and I'd still prefer shorts to be the majority - like, maybe one 22-minute episode or two 11-minute episodes for every five 3-minute shorts. Or better yet, an occasional batch of longer episodes instead of the 45-minute specials. (I don't want it to be tightly serialized. I don't watch My Little Pony for that.)

A longer show has a lot of potential, but I don't entirely trust the writing crew, so I'd prefer not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. 

Edited February 1, 2019 by AlexanderThrond

[Thrond 3,263]

Wait a minute, a 22-minute show could have a story about Sunset having anger issues. You know what, now I'm convinced. Still have no problem with the shorts, though. 

[Derpy Ole 4]

I hope that there will be a 22 minutes per episode show for Equestria Girls. That is the perfect opportunity to have character development of the human counterparts. Some things in the human world doesn't work necessarily the same as in the pony world. And why can't the MLP franchise have 2 series working next to each other with sometimes even crossovers too. At a certain point there were 3 Star Trek series (TNG, DS9, Voyager) and three CSI series (Vegas, Miami, New York). With CSI they even did a show involving all the three CSI franchises in a series. That was a pretty awesome show.

Nowadays there is the NCIS series with spin offs which are working pretty well next to each other. It would be so cool that once in a while some ponies of the Mane 6 would go the human world to help their human counterparts out with their problems like Twilight Sparkle did.

And you could have dramatic episodes with the Equestria Girls when Sunset Shimmer meets her human counterpart. Also the Dazzlings can play a more prominent role as adversaries of the Mane 7. Or Changelings trying to get a foothold in the human world as an attempt to conquer Equestria.

Even common high school problems can be addressed like for example a school fight. Imagine when Sunset and/or Applejack/Rainbow Dash are defending the weak like a Wallflower Blush, Derpy against bullies ending in a fight. Instead of being praised by Principal Celestia and vice principal Luna, the girls are in detention because they beat up some bullies and taught the bullies the hard way not to mess with members of the mane 7.

Anyway, Hasbro, please give us 2 MLP Series so that we all can sing...Welcome to the SHOWS!