Should G5 have more male characters?

[Midnight Solace 5,132]

If G5 had more male characters, it would be very different from what we know and love.

I think I would like it if it was like this though:

 

[Altastrofae 933]

My mind, funnily enough, didn't think of straight ships when I saw "more male characters" 

My mind went right to gay ships 

I don't have a problem with the lesbian ships. I wouldn't call it a last resort, I'd do that anyway 

Nopony escapes the shipstorm! 

NOPONY!!! 

 

But in all seriousness, I'd love some gender diversity, but I'll be fine with whatever. It is a show directed at young girls, so its not like I wouldn't suspect a surplus of females

[Plonkett 345]

On ‎11‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 7:47 AM, CloudMistDragon said:

I would like for G5 to have more male characters, granted that they are well-written. I think the main cast should always be female-dominated, as part of the show's identity is 'girl power' and appealing to young girls. So long as they would not be putting in more male characters just for the sake of it and giving young girls admirable male models to feel inspired by, I think that would be pretty cool.  

To me that's all that matters, and I'm perfectly fine with still having a female dominated cast.

[TBD 17,256]

I stopped asking for more male characters knowing G4 already have a good amount of both male and female characters. But I don't mind male characters as the main, just as long they don't add romance and gender-bend.

[Plonkett 345]

3 hours ago, TBD said:

I stopped asking for more male characters knowing G4 already have a good amount of both male and female characters. But I don't mind male characters as the main, just as long they don't add romance and gender-bend.

I'd be fine with romance as long as there's good chemistry. I'd like to see G5 cover more genres besides SoL, Comedy, and Adventure like G4.

Edited November 29, 2018 by vgmaster9

[RDDash 19,195]

Anyway I think they just need to focus on the story telling, if there is a reason for any character regardless of gender or their social prefences to contribute to the story then that what should they be doing. If they are simply just because someone needs to showcase their gender or social preferences, then it's really stupid idea to begin with.

[TBD 17,256]

3 hours ago, vgmaster9 said:

I'd be fine with romance as long as there's good chemistry. I'd like to see G5 cover more genres besides SoL, Comedy, and Adventure like G4.

There has been many others cartoons with romance, I think having one cartoon without romance won't hurt. Beside MLP g4 did covered romance but only for one episode occasion. Which I'm fine with that. But if it's the long terms kind than no.

[Monsoon 1,662]

I don't really mind if there's more male characters or not as long as the main character's are appealing to watch as the ones are in gen 4 I'm not too bothered 

[Sunlight Glisten 368]

As long as they dont scrap big mac and discord. Deffinantly my favs.  

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

1 hour ago, Bas said:

It could allow to a hinted ship between 2 males, though.

Cool, but what exactly is your point?

[cuteycindyhoney 13,308]

On 11/20/2018 at 12:52 PM, Jeric said:

This is a question phrased wrongly. Gender and race should only be selected to support or elevate a character. You should strive to create a compelling character without these attributes, and if delving into the character you find that it makes sense to be a female or male, you go with that.  Otherwise going with some pulled-from-the-air number is basically an arbitrary assignment of charactistics that can limit your creation. 

 

What he said......

Edited December 1, 2018 by cuteycindyhoney

[Earl Grey Ghost 446]

Yes, yes and uhm... ah, I'm gonna say Yes.

While I get the 'demographic' they originally shoot for, you know the creators are not blind to the audience it has in some males. I think that more balanced out would be nice. Every time they go to introduce a new character, I'm praying it's male, because the show is inundated with females. Over-saturated. 
Males can also be kind, cute, likeable. And who cares what gender your hero is, as long as you have a hero, right? Male or female, it shouldn't matter. It's the heroes attributes, their qualities that matter, so all these people arguing for "strong female heroes!" are basically in an echo chamber. Representation sure, is important, but come on people----you're focusing on the WRONG THING. Gender, race, etc---focus on attributes...

I believe that having more male characters would be good! Especially if their demographic is more female based, because if you have ONLY a female cast, and push the males to the wayside, it can have the unfortunate side-effect of (notice I said CAN, not WILL), of girls thinking that men are either not as important, or that they ONLY should make friends with fellow females. It divides the sexes.

The more integration, the more understanding and balance you have. I was thrilled when I saw Sunburst for the first time, and was even more thrilled when the newest season came out and there's at least two male main characters. I was so worried it would be another group of girls. I was so happy that wasn't the case!
The only characters I have to complain about is the changeling (IMO should have been male, but I suppose I can take it or leave it), and the big, dumb, eats all the time Yak, and her underlying joke is "she's big and fat." Don't you think that's more damaging? I think they gravely dumbed her down, in not only her speech not improving over the time she's been in Ponyville, but the fact that this "YAK SMASH" joke, gets old and quick and certainly makes her look like the simpleton of the group. They did the yak's and basically a foreigners as a whole, a disservice.

Edited December 3, 2018 by Earl Grey Ghost

[Black Sabbath 2,486]

5 hours ago, Earl Grey Ghost said:

And who cares what gender your hero is, as long as you have a hero, right?

I'd take this argument a bit more seriously had you not simultaneously argued that the show needs more male characters. If we shouldn't care about the genders of the protagonists, why do you? 

5 hours ago, Earl Grey Ghost said:

it can have the unfortunate side-effect of (notice I said CAN, not WILL), of girls thinking that men are either not as important, or that they ONLY should make friends with fellow females.

I feel like that's a huge stretch. If watching a show with only female characters leads you to think that mles aren't as important then you didn't have all your horses to begin with. 

As for the friendship thing, you don't need to have male main characters to prove that males and females can be friends so I don't really see your point.

Edited December 3, 2018 by Sun Wukong

[Gestum 2,493]

I'm going to say no. Not every show needs to have diversity in it and it's not like men are lacking representation in media.

[Earl Grey Ghost 446]

7 hours ago, Sun Wukong said:

I'd take this argument a bit more seriously had you not simultaneously argued that the show needs more male characters. If we shouldn't care about the genders of the protagonists, why do you? 

I feel like that's a huge stretch. If watching a show with only female characters leads you to think that mles aren't as important then you didn't have all your horses to begin with. 

As for the friendship thing, you don't need to have male main characters to prove that males and females can be friends so I don't really see your point.

You know what, you're right about me contradicting myself. I guess conversationally in my head what I meant to say didn't come out right on text lol, so I'll try to make myself more clear, while I do agree that it shouldn't matter who your heroes are, male or female----I on a personal level, do wish there were more male characters just mainly because that's just me. While I do think it doesn't matter, for me, it does. So again, from my own perspective, yeah, I find it hard to relate to female characters. I can see great qualities that they have and find them commendable, but I can't relate. My comment was my own personal feelings of it, and why I think there should be more male characters in the show, because I'm sure there's someone else out there like myself. Everyone's got that thing about something where they go "yeah, it doesn't really matter, but it matters to me, so here's what I think".

I find it too overly dominated with female characters, but obviously not the point where it makes me not want to watch it, it's more of a slight irk. Especially because there has to be more male ponies in the world as you wouldn't have more little ponies without them! So I guess, the science part of my brain goes, "how are there not more males? And if they are, what's the issue with more being depicted?"
Which also is quickly tagged along by the thought I have of, Why is Celestia a Princess and not a Queen? Wouldn't her rank go up if she was the only Monarchy in charge? Her sister, obviously being younger, would still be a Princess, but with lack of a King or Queen, that would make Celestia the Queen. 
We have Queen Chrysalis, why not Queen Celestia? It doesn't make sense.

Lastly when I said what I did about the friendship thing---I said can OR will, and I emphasised those. I'm not saying it's a huge possibility, or even a thing, I was just "thinking out loud". Do I really think that'll be a thing that pops up? Phht, no, not really, no. I was just adding to the table a 'possibly', 'maybe', or a 'what if' sort of comment.

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

I don’t care if the characters are male or female or gay or black or anything. Just make good characters with good stories. That’s what I’m interested in and so should the writers and direcors, producers.

And female ponies are kind of the show’s identity. It’s like how most Transformers are male. Totally makes sense to me.

[Plonkett 345]

Honestly, I agree with everyone here. I think G5, like every other show in the franchise, should have a female dominated cast. At the time I posted this thread I was interested in the idea for having male characters that would have more use in the cast. But yeah, now I realize that having more male characters just because is not a very practical idea, especially in a franchise like MLP.

[Stardust 641]

I think they could have more varied male characters haha. How about some more bright coloured male ponies with interesting designs. Ya dun always have to make them all dark just cuz they are male lol. Like the g1 malee ponies perhaps.

But I still think mainly girls. But having more male characters is still cool. Lauren Faust would have liked a bit more maybe I think. 

[EpicEnergy 23,222]

I wouldn't mind it if G5 had more male characters, just as long as they are well-developed.

[Savy 5,085]

I wouldn't mind G5 having more male characters. Just let them be well-developed. 

[Ittoni 538]

Even when some might say i'm normally a bit of a misogynist i actually think the show is ok as it is being predominantly female. There's not many shows where not only the cast but the entire population of the world the characters live in is mostly female and female dominated. It's interesting how that mixes the formula a bit where the opposite happens.

That said though, i would really like to see a male pony being part of the main cast. Not like spike necessarily but as an actual member of the new group, that is because i think the main cast being all female speaks directly to the female audience and that's good but nowadays you have to think of the kids that are boys that might feel excluded because of their sex, because that's how many are educated, that maybe they will think is not a show for them, so throw in a male main character to have that connection with your male kid audience if you want to be inclusive. boys can have female friends too. more interaction with the male characters would be an interesting component too, you can have most of the habitants be a certain sex or gender but still have a lot of plot with male characters, like what happened with shining armor and discord. I would like to see a male alicorn that earned their wings  That would be cool if it's still a thing. You can play a lot with the rules of the world. Maybe have a village of a subspecies of ponies (like the kirins or something) where they are mostly males, not because it''s different but to have just a visual context of variety. Although i don't know if they would want to continue with the fantasy adventure setup. Either way, it's fine as it is, just have more male characters to interact with and that actively help the heroes even if it's still mostly girl ponies. I say it because sometimes it does feel like the tables have turned and now the damsels in distress are the male characters, Shiny I'm looking at you and all of your royal guards.

Edited July 28, 2020 by Ittoni

[Ittoni 538]

4 minutes ago, You said:

Reversed sexist MLP G4.

And incels believe the IRL world is bad....:p

Wait... what?...

The reasoning is different to RL. This a cartoon aimed for girls, so it's only logical that there would be more female representation. Nothing more