Does MLP FiM Address Things Too Late?

[JMTV99 1,359]

This question came from Anime Superhero Forums asked the same question: (https://animesuperhero.com/forums/threads/does-my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic-address-things-too-late.5754931/)

This is something that I questioned myself about this for a quite a while now and I want to share it with you all.

In my personal opinion, yes. Mostly because of the fact that the show had so much potential for the characters being developed, that would end up either A. wasted or B. pushed in to the wayside. I understand that the crew wanted to be experimental and trying out new things, but it kinda lose it on what made FiM so charming in the first place.

I know I may sound like a broken record, but that's just how I feel about it.

What do you guys think? Agree? Disagree? Or a little in between? Let me know.

[Will Guide 21,371]

You have to remember that this is technically supposed to be a show for young audiences. So there are some things that they're not allowed to show on the show.

[Megas 28,097]

Most definitely, I have a laundry list of things that ended up falling short because the show dragged its feet too long to address only for the end result to be less than satisfying.

Scootaloo's parents is one of the biggest ones, it shouldn't have taken until the final season to address them, and when the time came they had to explain just about everything that was going on in Scootaloo's life to the point where it just makes a huge mess of things. They had to introduce her aunts and explain their absence and Scootaloo's living situation, then they finally introduce her parents only for the writers to justify them not being around and try to excuse them by basing them off real life heroes so they hope you don't talk shit. And ultimately accepts that it's all okay

Then you got Celestia, who also shouldn't have taken 7 seasons just to get one episode. You had the first season showing you from time to time what she's like but she still has a notable presence in S1 despite not getting her own episode, yet by season 2 already they start to give her less and less time only to job in the premieres and finales while pandering to the fandom and riding Luna hard, to the point where the show explicitly goes out of its way to leave her out of things

Then you got RD becoming a Wonderbolt. While S5 was out giving the CMC their cutie marks and letting Rarity finally expand her business into Canterlot, we had to wait another season for them to bring RD into the Wonderbolts, but oh boy do I wish they could have done it sooner, because I'm sure they might have actually put effort into it under S5's staff. Between the absolute "fuck you" of a milestone episode and the fact that they did absolutely nothing with RD's status as a Wonderbolt afterwards it was really obvious they knew everyone was going to hate this shit and didn't care, and honestly I wish they wouldn't have even bothered. But thank god they thought it would have been great to dedicate RD's final episodes of fucking buckball, amirite?

Then you got Spike's origins. Now this one is just silly, you actually dedicate an episode to exploring Spike and dragons as far back as S2 and proceed to not only answer nothing, but paint a pretty poor image of dragons going forward, and even in S8, even when the staff are finally giving Spike a fair shake, they tease the possibility of seeing Spike's parents only for them to pull the rug from under us yet again. This was just cruel. Yeah, fine, even if we assumed they didn't want to make Spike's real possible dad be an asshole, it just sounds like they were afraid of taking risks, because you know what that might have not only actually answered something but it might have actually been interesting.

Since I know some people are gonna come in here and say it but for the love of Christ please shut the fuck up about that shitty "BUT FAN FIK" cop-out, that doesn't change the fact that they show fucking sucked at delivering a lot of what it had initially built up, even for some of the things the newer staff would come up with(School of Friendship/Student Six, for example)

[Landi 602]

Yeah, I'd say there definitely a few things that were either addressed too late, or not even explored at all. Some examples that come to mind are: Equestrian cities/towns, Batponies, and Scootaloo's parents. What made this even worse was that the newer writers just kept throwing in stuff that not only took away from the charm and the quality of the show, but also ignored previously established concepts. An example of this is the School of Friendship, which practically ignored the fact that the mane six already have their own individual careers, which they had been working towards since the beginning of the show. So yeah, I'd agree that there was a lot of missed opportunities when it comes to addressing established lore.

[Will Guide 21,371]

@Megas

Look you don't have to agree with me but that kind of cynicism is the reason why I stopped following review shows about MLP. I feel like people are being a bit too cynical and not open-minded enough to accept that a long running show can have good moments as well as bad moments

As I said before and another post I treat the show more like a roller coaster ride; it's going to have it up it's going to have its down but I just go along for the ride. Because life is full of good moments and bad moments and the whole experience is to just enjoy it all, rather than wasting your time complaining about it to the point where you end up missing some of the good stuff that might be buried under the stuff you don't like.

[JMTV99 1,359]

3 hours ago, Will Guide said:

You have to remember that this is technically supposed to be a show for young audiences. So there are some things that they're not allowed to show on the show.

 

3 hours ago, Megas said:

Most definitely, I have a laundry list of things that ended up falling short because the show dragged its feet too long to address only for the end result to be less than satisfying.

Scootaloo's parents is one of the biggest ones, it shouldn't have taken until the final season to address them, and when the time came they had to explain just about everything that was going on in Scootaloo's life to the point where it just makes a huge mess of things. They had to introduce her aunts and explain their absence and Scootaloo's living situation, then they finally introduce her parents only for the writers to justify them not being around and try to excuse them by basing them off real life heroes so they hope you don't talk shit. And ultimately accepts that it's all okay

Then you got Celestia, who also shouldn't have taken 7 seasons just to get one episode. You had the first season showing you from time to time what she's like but she still has a notable presence in S1 despite not getting her own episode, yet by season 2 already they start to give her less and less time only to job in the premieres and finales while pandering to the fandom and riding Luna hard, to the point where the show explicitly goes out of its way to leave her out of things

Then you got RD becoming a Wonderbolt. While S5 was out giving the CMC their cutie marks and letting Rarity finally expand her business into Canterlot, we had to wait another season for them to bring RD into the Wonderbolts, but oh boy do I wish they could have done it sooner, because I'm sure they might have actually put effort into it under S5's staff. Between the absolute "fuck you" of a milestone episode and the fact that they did absolutely nothing with RD's status as a Wonderbolt afterwards it was really obvious they knew everyone was going to hate this shit and didn't care, and honestly I wish they wouldn't have even bothered. But thank god they thought it would have been great to dedicate RD's final episodes of fucking buckball, amirite?

Then you got Spike's origins. Now this one is just silly, you actually dedicate an episode to exploring Spike and dragons as far back as S2 and proceed to not only answer nothing, but paint a pretty poor image of dragons going forward, and even in S8, even when the staff are finally giving Spike a fair shake, they tease the possibility of seeing Spike's parents only for them to pull the rug from under us yet again. This was just cruel. Yeah, fine, even if we assumed they didn't want to make Spike's real possible dad be an asshole, it just sounds like they were afraid of taking risks, because you know what that might have not only actually answered something but it might have actually been interesting.

Since I know some people are gonna come in here and say it but for the love of Christ please shut the fuck up about that shitty "BUT FAN FIK" cop-out, that doesn't change the fact that they show fucking sucked at delivering a lot of what it had initially built up, even for some of the things the newer staff would come up with(School of Friendship/Student Six, for example)

Yeah, I can understand both of your prospectives. I know this show was made for little girls in mind, and that's fine and all, but I would argue that MLP FiM was able pushed the boundaries on what a cartoon could be in terms of storytelling and characters without talking down to it's audience. 

So I expected this show at least address the issues with justice and care without feeling disappointed and incredibly rushed.

Moments ago, Landi said:

Yeah, I'd say there definitely a few things that were either addressed too late, or not even explored at all. Some examples that come to mind are: Equestrian cities/towns, Batponies, and Scootaloo's parents. What made this even worse was that the newer writers just kept throwing in stuff that not only took away from the charm and the quality of the show, but also ignored previously established concepts. An example of this is the School of Friendship, which practically ignored the fact that the mane six already have their own individual careers, which they had been working towards since the beginning of the show. So yeah, I'd agree that there was a lot of missed opportunities when it comes to addressing established lore.

Yeah, that's a good point. Especially the School of Friendship.

 

7 minutes ago, Will Guide said:

@Megas

Look you don't have to agree with me but that kind of cynicism is the reason why I stopped following review shows about MLP. I feel like people are being a bit too cynical and not open-minded enough to accept that a long running show can have good moments as well as bad moments

As I said before and another post I treat the show more like a roller coaster ride; it's going to have it up it's going to have its down but I just go along for the ride. Because life is full of good moments and bad moments and the whole experience is to just enjoy it all, rather than wasting your time complaining about it to the point where you end up missing some of the good stuff that might be buried under the stuff you don't like.

Okay, that's a fair point and I completely respect that and I do agree.

[Misty Shadow 8,197]

They definitely took on Sombra coming back too late. 

Like I've said before, I am a what happened happened kind of guy. I can definitely understand some people's frustration though with the episodes that were dedicated to building up things that literally nobody cared about or was asking for. Angel would not be in my rewrite of the show, definitely. 

[Ganondorf8 11,699]

At the end of the day, the show's staff had to conform to whatever ideas Hasbro wanted to have implemented into the show. Friendship is Magic at its core, is a 22 minute long toy commercial so including as many characters, locations, artefacts, and so on were higher up on the to-do list for the company. It was also aimed at a young audience so certain things had to be either toned down or not included entirely because Hasbro weren't in favour of it.

Edited June 2, 2021 by Ganondorf8
Fixed the post.

[Tom Gallagher 33,625]

I don't really think about things like that too much.  I just prefer to sit there and enjoy what we get in an episode. 

5 hours ago, Landi said:

An example of this is the School of Friendship, which practically ignored the fact that the mane six already have their own individual careers, which they had been working towards since the beginning of the show. 

 

4 hours ago, JMTV99 said:

Yeah, that's a good point. Especially the School of Friendship.

I'd agree with that one though.  Especially the Students!  That's a great point about the Mane Six all having their own careers that they had all worked up to all their lives and now, they're pushed into having lousy jobs as teachers.  I never thought of that before.  If I'd have been with them, I would have told them not to because then they won't really have any time for anything else. 

[Oleks 1,994]

FiM definitely addressed some things too late or even didn't address them at all, like the origins of Zecora that have now been explored in the comics (yes, I now they had plans for it in the show that didn't get approved). Other things, like most of the Pillars, were addressed only superficially. And Twilight becoming an alicorn is an example of FiM concluding an arc too early and too hastily.

At the same time some things they did address were pleasant surprises to me. For example, I didn't expect to see an episode about AJ's parents or the conclusion of Lyra and Bon Bon's background story. Also, Twilight and Shining recognizing Spike as their brother, and not just Twi's assistant was something I never expected them to address. 

[JMTV99 1,359]

7 hours ago, CloudMistDragon said:

Like I've said before, I am a what happened happened kind of guy. I can definitely understand some people's frustration though with the episodes that were dedicated to building up things that literally nobody cared about or was asking for. Angel would not be in my rewrite of the show, definitely. 

I understand.

 

7 hours ago, Ganondorf8 said:

At the end of the day, the show's staff had to conform to whatever ideas Hasbro wanted to have implemented into the show. Friendship is Magic at its core, is a 22 minute long toy commercial so including as many characters, locations, artefacts, and so on were higher up on the to-do list for the company. It was also aimed at a young audience so certain things had to be either toned down or not included entirely because Hasbro weren't in favour of it.

Yeah, that is true. It always been Hasbro's bread and butter formula since the 80's, but at least with FiM's smart and clever writing were able to back it up, to some extent.

 

3 hours ago, TomDaBombMLP said:

I don't really think about things like that too much.  I just prefer to sit there and enjoy what we get in an episode. 

Yeah, that's fair.

 

57 minutes ago, Oleks said:

At the same time some things they did address were pleasant surprises to me. For example, I didn't expect to see an episode about AJ's parents or the conclusion of Lyra and Bon Bon's background story. Also, Twilight and Shining recognizing Spike as their brother, and not just Twi's assistant was something I never expected them to address. 

Yeah, I agree. The stuff that the showrunners were able to pull off was a miracle.

[CastletonSnob 3,089]

The show not only addresses things too late, but also throws away interesting ideas and characters. Thorax, Ember and the Pillars were set up to be important, only to be thrown to the side in favor of the School and the Student Six, which themselves feel underutilized.

Scorpan, Tirek's brother, could have been an interesting character, and even got a couple of mentions in the later seasons, only to not even show up in the show.

[JMTV99 1,359]

5 minutes ago, CastletonSnob said:

The show not only addresses things too late, but also throws away interesting ideas and characters. Thorax, Ember and the Pillars were set up to be important, only to be thrown to the side in favor of the School and the Student Six, which themselves feel underutilized.

Scorpan, Tirek's brother, could have been an interesting character, and even got a couple of mentions in the later seasons, only to not even show up in the show.

Yeah, that's a shame.

[Ganondorf8 11,699]

11 hours ago, JMTV99 said:

Yeah, that is true. It always been Hasbro's bread and butter formula since the 80's, but at least with FiM's smart and clever writing were able to back it up, to some extent.

In their eyes, what isn't broken doesn't need fixing.

[Megas 28,097]

On 2021-06-01 at 7:44 PM, Will Guide said:

@Megas

Look you don't have to agree with me but that kind of cynicism is the reason why I stopped following review shows about MLP. I feel like people are being a bit too cynical and not open-minded enough to accept that a long running show can have good moments as well as bad moments

As I said before and another post I treat the show more like a roller coaster ride; it's going to have it up it's going to have its down but I just go along for the ride. Because life is full of good moments and bad moments and the whole experience is to just enjoy it all, rather than wasting your time complaining about it to the point where you end up missing some of the good stuff that might be buried under the stuff you don't like.

tbf it's not like i want to be cynical about the direction the show eventually took, I just am. And believe me when

I say I hate this feeling. I get the whole "stopped following review shows" thing, I really do, but the worst thing about this is that I end up turning into something I didn't want to be. And when the show is going in such a direction that I honestly don't feel like I'm even allowed to like certain aspects, I'm gonna voice my concerns about it

[Will Guide 21,371]

6 minutes ago, Megas said:

tbf it's not like i want to be cynical about the direction the show eventually took, I just am. And believe me when

I say I hate this feeling. I get the whole "stopped following review shows" thing, I really do, but the worst thing about this is that I end up turning into something I didn't want to be. And when the show is going in such a direction that I honestly don't feel like I'm even allowed to like certain aspects, I'm gonna voice my concerns about it

Fair enough

[JMTV99 1,359]

3 hours ago, Megas said:

tbf it's not like i want to be cynical about the direction the show eventually took, I just am. And believe me when

I say I hate this feeling. I get the whole "stopped following review shows" thing, I really do, but the worst thing about this is that I end up turning into something I didn't want to be. And when the show is going in such a direction that I honestly don't feel like I'm even allowed to like certain aspects, I'm gonna voice my concerns about it

Yeah, I definitely do understand what you mean.