Do you lower your expectations for MLP?

[Sepul-Coloratura 762]

Do you have a lower or a different standard for watching MLP or EQG?

I have lowered my expectations many times when watching MLP.

For EQG movies, my expectations were lower and I almost tolerated them.

[Early Sunsets 2,107]

No, but to be fair, I'm easy to please. I can count the number of times MLP has disappointed me on one hand (maybe two if I'm getting nitpicky), and most of them were in season 9. As for EQG, I never really got into it, but maybe that was because I went into it with the same expectations as FiM, which doesn't seem very fair. Maybe I can enjoy it if I don't expect it to be as good. I should give those movies another try.

For the next generation, however, I have to keep telling myself that it probably won't be as good as FiM. Whenever G5 rolls around, I'll have to remember to lower them.

Edited May 20, 2020 by Booker

[Metemponychosis 1,261]

No. It's like asking a christian to stop believing for a while for the sake of an argument. Sounds like a strawman argument to complain that people don't like something that one likes.

I never truly understood this conversation. What are 'expectations' when people are talking about this? When I watch Star Trek I expect technobabble and some moral directive in a science fiction setting. Perhaps some food for thought on some ambiguous situation that may or not correlate to real life. MLP is the similar and I don't really know how to 'lower expectations'. It sounds demeaning, a priori, to the producers because it's like saying that they lack the capacity to tell a story in a meaningful and entertaining way.

For example, the way MLP treated bullying in *that* episode. It doesn't become 'less wrong' because it is in a cartoon that targets a younger audience. Or Twilight's approach to Pinkie Sense and the final message. Wrong is wrong.

Maybe the intention here is asking if I have the capacity to 'forgive' the cartoon for dealing in a wrong way with whatever it was trying to do... Is it lowering expectations if I go into an episode knowing full well that Celestia is going to be an idiot because that is what the cartoon did with her and still being able to have fun with Twilight and her friends trying to get into her palace (or the cartoon's insistence on calling the thing a 'castle') when the episode does turn her into an idiot? That is not lowering expectations, that is understanding that the creator may have a different creative vision or even accepting that they aren't perfect.

[Latecomer 439]

Over time, mi hopes sadlu lowered. Sometimes I was disappointed anyway but other times I was pleasntlu surprised.

[TBD 17,254]

Here's how I proceeded. When I first watch mlp I have no expectations. After watching few episode or more, my expectation is rising. When I see I don't like, I rant but realized how stupid it is to rant over a kid show. So.. I stop caring and just enjoy mlp regardless. EQG is just meh overall to me anyways.

[Dark Qiviut 22,428]

As far as FIM’s concerned, nope. FIM proved it can be really good and built that rep in the first place. If I lowered my own standard, then I put no faith in them. I may expect an episode to suck here or here, but my standard of quality never wavered.

Edited May 21, 2020 by Dark Qiviut

[Fluttershyfan94 5,742]

You know this reminds me of the movie atlantis then you watched atlantis 2 and you're like huh ehm is this suddenly a children's show. 

Now while mlp is a children's show and for obvious reasons gives that vibe it is far from being a children's show only. I believe as such I feel like mlp has been very constant and as such I never really had high or low standards it was just a good show I enjoyed and it has been a good show to the end of season nine so I say my standards have been constant with the show indeed.

[Megas 27,672]

Going into it, yeah. I thought it was just a fad, a dumb kids show, suddenly I'm finding myself burning through the entire thing. 4 years later I come in expecting something great every week. Yeah there were ups and downs but throughout the first five seasons really surprised me in a good way, not only did I find myself loving it, it helped expand my horizons and try other shows similar to it's nature. I mean for fucks sake I gave Ever After High a go, and I seriously found myself genuinely enjoying it. Then the Haber years happened and any sense of optimism I had was thrown out the window for some of the absolute worst the show had to offer. Set the bar so low for S7 that it shocked me at how much I was loving it, especially for the first half, which is what I think is the show at its absolute best, the season as a whole was fantastic, even if Josh Haber would rear his head in the second half(and it really shows). S8 came and really suffers a lot of the same problems S6 did though I think it gets a pass from me due to actually trying with its ideas at times, but often they came at the expense of the main cast which really brings it down for me. Then comes S9. Despite being under the same leadership as S6 and S8, it was the final season and I had expectations at an all time high, especially with how the promo material was made. And honestly, I don't think it's completely unreasonable to have big expectations for the final season of the show, that's when you expect them to pull all the stops. Unfortunately, the season pretends to be this deep, emotional send off only to waste most of its time smelling its own asshole, doing everything in its power to be a miserable experience unless you happened to like whatever the writers were interested in. First half of the season was incredibly underwhelming despite a really good intro and a couple of good episodes sprinkled like Sparkle's Seven, Common Ground and Frenemies. Cue the second half, Josh Haber is story editing alone again, Habering it up, only two episodes in and I hated it so much I gave up watching the rest of the season and never even bothered with the finale. And I never looked back. Season 9 was such a shitshow it nearly killed my love for the series. Honestly still surprised that Best Gift Ever and Rainbow Roadtrip came out at the same time, as they pretty much blew away everything S8 or S9 did(though not surprising given they were made by different people), to the point where I acknowledge Rainbow Roadtrip as the show's finale instead of The Last Problem

Likewise, EQG, I never thought of much, I didn't mind the leaked artwork(hey it wasn't the awful promo art). The special itself was pretty okay, nothing to special. It was pretty nonsensical and kind of dumb, but inoffensive overall. Rainbow Rocks came however and really showed what kind of direction they wanted to take the series, it had some of the best villains in the series, music was great, and it turned one of the most hated villains in Sunset Shimmer into one of the most beloved characters in the entire franchise. Another thing Rainbow Rocks introduced, which I think was what helped shape it's identity was making small shorts featuring the characters, and while some(Hamstergeddon, the Rarity one) weren't anything special, others(Guitar Centered, the AJ and Pinkie ones) were really fun and was a welcome addition. Friendship Games definitely continued this trend, though not without its shortcoming, as it wanted to bring back focus on a new take on Twilight, there was some cool moments here, but that coupled with the terrible bait-n-switch with the Shadowbolts in favor of a crabby old woman no one knew until the special actually aired, and ultimately no one gave a shit about, makes it a disappointing follow up to Rainbow Rocks looking back(even worse when you consider the much more interesting homesick storyline they had for Sunset, but given it's written by Josh Haber, it's not surprising he decided to omit all of the parts that looked even remotely interesting). Legend of Everfree was a much better special despite being more mellow. The twist with Timber not being shady, and Gloriosa turning out to be Gaia Everfree really isn't the most clever looking back, but I prefer it over trying to be fancy and failing like FG did, especially since I think Gloriosa is a really underappreciated character. The the movie night special felt like they were testing the waters for a TV show giving out 3 show length episodes, and these were kind of a mixed bag, though I still stand by that getting rid of the shitty villain plot and dedicating most of the focus on Starlight Glimmer in the human world and her and Sunset bonding would have been done wonders for it. So far EQG is a real mixed bag as a whole, and ultimately Hasbro decided to keep it a Shorts-based series with some CYOA shorts thrown in, and while these weren't bad, some were great even, I still would have much preferred a series with the length the main show had really set expectations pretty low, especially since some of them feel like real wasted potential(LOOKING AT YOU OVERPOWERED). But then we get Forgotten Friendship, and for being the obligatory beach episode, pretty much succeeded in topping Rainbow Rocks and Legends of Everfree at being the best thing the franchise had to offer, and delivering on things I've wanted to see for a while(Celestia and Sunset reconciling). Nick Confalone set the bar really high....perhaps too high, as the next two specials Rollercoaster of Friendship and Spring Breakdown I was severely underwhelmed by, so much so that it made me skip the next one(though Nick Confalone actually went as far as to apologize for the latter, which to his credit at least shows that he does care about the series and wants people to enjoy it), I continued watching the shorts however, which I couldn't help but feel they were always getting better and better(despite the bad "Youtube influencer" gimmick they had early in S2, which still had some good ones). However, despite my low expectations, I still cared enough to watch the non-ending Holidays Unwrapped. I still have yet to watch 2 of the six episodes featured in it, the one with the Flim Flam Bros, but fuck them, and the last one, with the Holiday Photo, which I haven't watched merely out of laziness, but even with that said, the fact that I still bothered with EQG's finale whereas I still refuse to watch FiM's, I guess EQG is the one that came up on top after all.

Now you have the comics which is the king of setting expectations as low as possible, which if I'm being honest, actually works to its benefit sometimes. Something the comics have a bad habit of doing of trying to be really big, and admittedly it worked for the first two arcs, the Changelings and Nightmare Rarity, but after that you get smaller arcs, some comedy SoL and some small adventure stories and looking back these were great, the Big Mac Harem arc, Shining and Cadance, Pirates and Bookworm. But after that you get the Micros and they were mixed at best, with some really good(Rarity and Pinkie) some terrible(Rainbow Dash) and let's just say if you weren't anyone's favorite at IDW you were pretty much fucked(Rainbow Dash's wasn't even handled in-house and was outsourced to some random asshole in Australia). And I think a sign that everything was about to fall apart was Reflections which besides being a huge waste of potential with it's alternate universe plot engaged in some of the worst characterization in Celestia, which given that when you think about it doesn't really have much going for her, really says a lot. And it only goes downhill from there, with the sole exception being Manehattan Mysteries which was actually a lot of fun, most multi-issue comics from the Bull arc to the Deer, were some of the worst things the franchise was putting out, and unfortunately some of the one-shot comics were getting buried in a sea of negativity, some of which I actually think were really solid(I mean for fuck's sake Katie Cook managed to write a decent RD story). Meanwhile they were running several parallel side series after the micros, we had the Friends Forever which, despite a......rocky start, to put it mildly, was honestly really good despite the occasional misstep(like the strange in between when they focused on OCs rather than the pair ups involved), and I still think it's some of the best stuff they have to offer in regards to IDW MLP. Then you got Fiendship which ranged from excellent(Sombra) to dreadful(Dazzlings) to mediocre(everyone else). After that was a series dedicated to the Pillars of Equestria and I gotta say it's probably the best both the comics were able to do in regards to multi-arc comics, and it's damn good. Funny enough, while the main series completely blows multi-arc comics, actual dedicated side series have been pretty solid, with the CMC series(Ponyville Mysteries and Spirit of the Forest) and the Student Six(Feats of Friendship) and the Pillars(Legends of Equestria), I'm honestly hoping for one set around the Wonderbolts in the future(especially since they're one of the few things IDW eclipses the main show at). As for the main series, anytime they do a one shot I'm usually sad people aren't as hot about them because some of them range from decent to legitimately fun, great even, and even that rare time an arc actually turns out alright(the ones when the kids get lost, Shadowlock, that recent Big Mac/RD one). Heck, when i end up really surprised and really like a comic, I usually end up actually trying to buy one physically. EQG for the longest time felt cursed with the comics, the origin story of how they became friends is honestly really....really tripe, it's just a really bad attempt at bringing the EQG to comics, then you got the Holiday 2014 comic, with it's attempt to address cyberbullying, which I still consider the second worst thing Hasbro has ever produced regarding this franchise, then you got the Dazzling Fiendship, which again, turn both theirs and Starswirl's origins into complete jokes and just goes off the walls with "lol they made all genres!", so when it was March Radness's turn, I wasn't really expecting....anything if I'm being honest, however reading the synopsis of just being 3 short stories gave me hope, and when I read it, I was surprised at how much I liked it, so much so that, amid the current pandemic, I actually tried to get my hands on a physical copy. If nothing else, my feelings of the comics tell me that they really shine when they're just trying to be fun stories about ponies and not try to be something big and epic, which is why I honestly don't have much hope for S10, because imo, the comics really falter when it gets overly ambitious

tl;dr version - I did, then didn't, then did again, then didn't again, then did again

Edited May 21, 2020 by Kiryu⚡Chan

[Thrond 3,263]

I don't think I would have made it through the later seasons if I didn't. Sometimes I had no choice but to put character consistency or narrative coherence out of my mind in order to enjoy a few good jokes or an interesting plot development. Doing so had its rewards. 

Edited May 21, 2020 by AlexanderThrond

[Ganondorf8 11,315]

I'm an easy person to please and for that I had no expectations going into either one. So long as I enjoy the experience, I'm good.

[Cash In 22,352]

I knew it was a kid's show at first, so I didn't really have many expectations to begin with. After I became a fan, I did have expectations to an extent, but I felt that they didn't matter much, since I'm really easy to please.

[King of Canterlot 9,603]

I mean, I had expectations that the episodes would be good. When I started watching the first seasons when I first got into the show I thought that most of the episodes were pretty good, so I held onto that expectation that a vast majority of the episodes would be good into the later seasons too. Of course, the later seasons in my opinion definitely weren't the best, so they damaged that expectation that most of an MLP season's episodes would be good, at least for those later seasons. I still believe that those early seasons are some of the best of the show though. I mean, at the end of the day MLP is just a kids show, so I never like expected any crazy over the top complex stories or characters, but I still really enjoyed the show overall, the earlier seasons more so than the later. 

EQG was just okay, I never was a huge fan of it but I have seen all of the movies and shorts and its still pretty solid, but obviously not as good as the original show.    

[Brony Number 42 10,069]

If you have to lower your expectations then maybe it is not for you. It is entertainment. If you don't like it then fimd something else. I don't understand the point in complaining about something that is trivial. 

If you invest too much into something then you are almost guaranteed to be disappointed. It is unlikely that something will be 100% what you want.

[Goat-kun 2,527]

Hopes =/= expectations

 

Only fools would seek to exchange predictions for an empty bag of hope. Only the blind would replace their own tongues with a golden coin they themselves do not own.

[Splashee 28,564]

Usually my expectations were lowered at Season 3 of FIM. Too many Spike episodes. That was at the time I caught up to the live episodes (waiting weeks just to see another Spike episode)

 

I never cared for Equestria Girls until "Forgotten Friendship". I just watched it for laughs. Very low expectation if none at all.

[KatonRyu 1,033]

I don't. It's a series I never watched for any particular element of it, just to see talking ponies having adventures. If anything, they're sometimes too high, like they were for the movie.

[Splashee 28,564]

I have very low expectations for episodes, specials and movies written by Meghan McCarthy. And I have very high expectations for episodes, specials and movies written by Nick Confalone. At least I used to.

[Prince Doopliss 2,351]

When I saw some clips and AMVs for the show. I was like okay it was a good girls cartoon with memes . But when I actually watch I had better expectations! Though the quality of the show however started to drop to me. Then again at that time I was worried about Twilight becoming a princess and all, but now I'm happy she became one. Mainly because she still stayed the same character. Though I got tired of Twilight being a worry wart a lot .  That was a problem was the freshness of the main characters. At least that was what it felt like for me. Now while season 4 did have its moments it still felt a little weak to me. Really set me off about RD's characterization .

No matter how many times the writers gave me something to like RD, they would overweight is constant usage of her flaws . I mean the writers could use RD flaws well, but after Season 2 it was just hard to believe. Even though Hurricane Fluttershy took place in Season 2, it couldn't save RD from a spiral downward to hatred . No matter what I had always got low expectations for RD going into an episode focusing on her. Though Pinkie Pie also feel into this same spiral. Though during what little I watch of season 5 saved her. Season 5 also made things look different for RD, but it just ended dropping the ball . 

While at the time my Feelings were still mix about Twilight at the time of season 5 another pony was about to head towards this spiral. That happened to be Applejack, so I quit watching because my expectations for Applejack became so low. To me this was a sign that the show wasn't fun to watch anymore and really I was so pessimistic about the series already going to this point . I mean Applejack had been pony who a favorite for so long and would advocate for more love for Applejack. So yeah, my expectations were lower so much I quit watching. And because my expectations of the show had lower it became hard for me to watch it again. Even if some episodes would be better than expected from Season 5-9. It just really hard for me to get in back to the series full time .

 

Equestria Girls was always meh to me. While I liked Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games better then the first one. It just never interested me enough to pass the meh status.

[StitchandMLPlover 930]

No I do not lower expectations at all. I do understand media well from being a filmmaker however, so I expect there to be continuity errors and I suspend my disbelief a little more because I realize some things are done for the fun of it, or because of production demands of the medium. 

[dead account 2,710]

No, not at all. It's more like that...I have the highest standards and...FiM is the only show that offers me everything and completely fulfills me.

[GalaticAC7 18]

haha i Joking 

might put to many derpys...  

 

[Tom Gallagher 33,588]

No. It’s too perfect. 

[Sparklefan1234 171,144]

I only lower my expectations for episodes that focus on reformed Discord, Big Mac and Spike. 

[ExplosionMare 18,063]

No, otherwise I would get bored. Now as for Pony Life, I did lower my expectation for that.

[Savy 5,077]

No, otherwise i'd get bored and I wouldn't like the newer seasons and G5 as much as I do.