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Do You Think FiM Ending at 65 Episodes was Good Enough or Not?


JMTV99

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This is probably my last time talking about something FiM related because 1) I don't watch the show anymore and 2) I don't want to talk about the same things for so long to the point it becomes a unhealthy obsession(like Faust good Hasbro bad, Twilicorn, Season 6, blah blah blah) because you guys got the point and I want to move on from it.

 

With that said, this is topic that I had been thinking about for a quite a bit awhile now. 

 

Friendship is Magic lasted about 9 years with 222 episodes completed. However, FiM was originally going to end after 65 episodes with 3 full seasons.

 

I just gonna ask you guys this: do you think the show ending at 65 episodes was good enough? Or ending at 222 was good enough for you?

 

I mean, it's guess it depends on the person's perspective on they viewed the show's quality. Some may the quality was consistently good from start to finish. Others may say the quality went after that. 

 

For me personally, looking back on it, I think that ending at 65 was good enough run for the show. Don't get me wrong, it's great to see FiM lasted for so long. But at the same time, the more you go on for so long, the more you started to repeat yourself and became stale after awhile. So I think ending at 65 episodes was not a bad idea in hindsight, in my opinion.

 

You guys may think differently, and that's perfectly fine, but what do you think of this? 

I don't want to come across as/ nor become a Hasbro shill nor a Lauren Faust fanboy in this topic. I just want to have a civilized discussion on the matter. That's all.

 

Let me know.

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Since Season 4 is my favorite season of the show, I am very glad that it did not end after Season 3. I think the ideal place to end the show would have been at Season 5, since that is where the show started to lose steam in my view and most of the character arcs where basically wrapped up.  Here is what my ideal version of a Season 5 would have looked like if it was the last season:

Do not reform or even bring back Starlight, keep her as a one off villian in The Cutie Map. (So no Cutie Remark)

Have Rainbow get in the Wonderbolts this season (preferably make it actually satisfying unlike in Newbie Dash lol)

Have Fluttershy make her animal sanctuary this season.

Move Amending Fences to make it the last episode before the finale episodes (would be a perfect placing for it imo)

Have an episode wrapping up Spike's story in some form.

Make Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep a two parter midway through the season so that it could have far more time to explore its creative ideas. (the actual episode didn't because it was so rushed). Incorporate Celestia into the episode so she could have a satisfying reconciliation with Luna, and made it so that Luna didn't intentionally create the Tantabus. (basically rewrite this part as Joshscorcher suggested in this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFBXXMTLC48 )

Have an epic 2 or 3 part finale similar to the Ending of the End (but better) where the past villians (Sombra, Chrysalis, Tierk) team up, and the various side characters who the ponies had met throughout the show help defeat them. However, unlike in Ending of the End, they should not destroy Discord's character in the process with that awful twist. Either don't introduce a new villain at all and just stick with the previous ones, or have Grogar as an actual character leading them. Also, actually show the process of the side characters working together and have a better and longer fight involving them. Maybe it could even involve time travel like the Cutie Remark (but one that actually sticks with one interesting timeline so that it actually has a focus and tells a coherent and fun story without a rushed redemption)

Either have Twilight take Celestia and Luna's place like in the actual finale, or just wrap up the show with the post Twilight's Kingdom status quo (either way could work fine imo). Either way have an epilogue episode that is similar to The Last Problem, except that it better shows the ponies' lives in the future.

(Venting below)

I really do wish the show ended along these lines. I find it to be sad how the show stayed on for so long being not particularly good so long after the popularity of the fandom died out. After Season 4 or 5 it felt like the show nor the fandom was no longer a big deal online, and that the number of bronies really shrinked. If the show ended on the terms I gave above, the show would have been consistently great throughout its entire run and would have ended while it was still relatively popular. Instead of remembering it was a show that was was a great phenomenon that slowly died out and ended on a whimper, I could remember it as a great phenomenon that was popular throughout and ended on a bang. Although this would mean we would have lost a lot of great episodes from the later seasons, this would have given the show a much stronger and more satisfying legacy. That being said, these are just my personal issues with the show. I am very glad that many people did enjoy the later seasons as much or even more than the earlier ones, and I wish I did too.

 

Edited by Lone Traveler
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No, if it ended by That time I never would have gotten in to the show. I saw the first 2 episodes when they was relised, but somehow did not realy like them. It was not untill I somehow saw the episode "Gontlet of fire" that I went back and more or less forced me through the first 3 seasons. I think the show got better as it went. More intresting episodes after season 3.

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Nah definitely not.  Way too many good episodes came out after season 3 to be comfortable saying it could’ve ended there.   Season 5 was my favorite season of the series.  7 seasons would’ve been the point they could have called it if they wanted IMO, but I’m glad it lasted a bit longer.  I haven’t seen Season 9, but after seeing Season 8 I am comfortable in saying that the hate the final seasons get will not rub off on me, so it lasted the right amount of time for me.
 

 

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No.

  1. A lot of arcs still needed to be resolved. To name a few, AJ's parents, Twilight's purpose post-coronation, the WBs, and the CMC's cutie mark search.
  2. Even though FIM was good, S3 was easily the worst. Despite many good episodes already, FIM often got to good only, and they reached bouts of inconsistency at times. FIM began to really step up their game in Season 5 with Cutie Map, Castle Sweet Castle, Bloom & Gloom, SoL, Amending Fences, Lost Mark, Mane Attraction, and Re-Mark.
  3. After their S6 blip, the quality of their episodes not only jumps ten-fold, but their average and bad episodes drop significantly. Seasons 7-9 is their most consistent stretch of both good and great episodes throughout the series, and these three seasons turned FIM from a really good cartoon to a great one. Road to Friendship through Sounds of Silence and Sparkle's Seven through Frenemies (five episodes apiece) are FIM's best runs.
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It was great that the show kept going after S3. As @Dark Qiviut said, there were still a lot of arcs to wrap up, and during the later seasons, we saw that weaker episodes started to disappear as arcs finished up and everyone else accomplished goals that were outlined early in the show. 

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Definitely not. :fluttershy: Magical Mystery Cure was originally going to be the series finale. I'd go as far to say that would've been an even more disappointing ending than what we got in Season 9, and it's starting to look like we don't need to have the animus for said ending anymore after the way the Season 10 comic ended. :mlp_icwudt: However, let's just say that the original series finale would've given us a satisfactory ending. That doesn't change the fact that we never would've gotten so much great, timeless world/character-building, like the alternate universes in Season 5, more of Pinkie Pie's family with Maud Pie, and the Kirin in Season 8. :kirin: Even the kind of world/character-building that wasn't done the way a lot of fans wanted still impacted the fandom tremendously, paving the way for more creativity with all sorts of fantastic fan art and fanfiction. The experiences in the fandom I had that were only made possible by the show going as long as it did, I wouldn't trade for the world. :kindness:

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(edited)

I did see all of the responses, and a lot of people do seem to disagree with me, and that's completely fair. I'm happy that the show went on long as it did and my life wouldn't be same if wasn't for this show.:kindness:

Apologies if I come across as a bit jaded here when making this thread here. I don't want to come across as flamebaiting, just wanna see other person's perspective.

For now on, I decided to not make discussions about MLP on here anymore(at least FiM show) and decided to move on.

Edited by JMTV99
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I dunno as there were tons of things that would be left hanging. I do know me personally I'd probably be a lot happier than the show ending at S9 when if felt barely recognizable

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@JMTV99

 I hope I'm not too late to say anything

I'm just surprised because when I joined the fandom in between season 3 and 4 I thought that every season that came out was going to be the last. In the end I officially been part of the fandom for 2/3 of the show instead of only like a quarter of it.

And through all the good and the bad forgettable and memorable ups and downs, it was amazing to spend time with all these characters, even the poorly written ones. And if I didn't discover the show back then my joy in life probably would have been very different

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46 minutes ago, Megas said:

I dunno as there were tons of things that would be left hanging. I do know me personally I'd probably be a lot happier than the show ending at S9 when if felt barely recognizable

 

10 minutes ago, Will Gazzzze said:

@JMTV99

 I hope I'm not too late to say anything

I'm just surprised because when I joined the fandom in between season 3 and 4 I thought that every season that came out was going to be the last. In the end I officially been part of the fandom for 2/3 of the show instead of only like a quarter of it.

And through all the good and the bad forgettable and memorable ups and downs, it was amazing to spend time with all these characters, even the poorly written ones. And if I didn't discover the show back then my joy in life probably would have been very different

I understand.:squee:

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Season four has always been where I would have stopped Friendship is Magic.

I feel like after Twilight earned her castle there wasn't much left to do with the show.

Edited by Sparklefan1234
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2 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

Season four has always been where I would have stopped Friendship is Magic.

I feel like after Twilight earned her castle there wasn't much left to do with the show.

Yeah I agree.

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I doubt I would have ever bothered watching the show if it had lasted just 65 episodes. It was November 2015 when I first started watching which was when season 5 was nearing its end. I don't know if I would have bothered giving the show a try if I knew it had already been cancelled and there were just three seasons and 65 eps. I definitely wouldn't love FiM like I do now anyway since seasons 5 to 8 are a golden era for the show for me. I actually feel lucky the show went on another four seasons after I got into it, normally when I get into a cartoon it immediately gets cancelled. Like when I got into the Wild Thornberrys around the time the movie came out and all that came after it was the eight-episode 5th season and the not very good Rugrats Go Wild movie.

So yeah I'm all in favour of there being as many episodes are possible! I would happily have watched many more than the 9 seasons we got. I'm just glad that gen 5 is set in the same world and is basically a continuation of gen 4.

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3 minutes ago, Solar Power said:

I doubt I would have ever bothered watching the show if it had lasted just 65 episodes. It was November 2015 when I first started watching which was when season 5 was nearing its end. I don't know if I would have bothered giving the show a try if I knew it had already been cancelled and there were just three seasons and 65 eps. I definitely wouldn't love FiM like I do now anyway since seasons 5 to 8 are a golden era for the show for me. I actually feel lucky the show went on another four seasons after I got into it, normally when I get into a cartoon it immediately gets cancelled. Like when I got into the Wild Thornberrys around the time the movie came out and all that came after it was the eight-episode 5th season and the not very good Rugrats Go Wild movie.

So yeah I'm all in favour of there being as many episodes are possible! I would happily have watched many more than the 9 seasons we got. I'm just glad that gen 5 is set in the same world and is basically a continuation of gen 4.

I understand.;)

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Also I want to add that if it didn't continue past four we never would have learned more about the Changelings which thanks to Thorax became my favorite non Pony race. Even if technically they didn't really answer all my changeling related questions. (Though to be fair this is a show made to primarily be seen by little kids so the question that I had in mind likely wouldn't have been appropriate)

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10 minutes ago, Will Gazzzze said:

Also I want to add that if it didn't continue past four we never would have learned more about the Changelings which thanks to Thorax became my favorite non Pony race. Even if technically they didn't really answer all my changeling related questions. (Though to be fair this is a show made to primarily be seen by little kids so the question that I had in mind likely wouldn't have been appropriate)

I see.

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Just imagine what we would have missed if the show had lasted just 3 seasons :wau: All those great episodes like The Perfect Pear, Amending Fences, Crusaders of the Lost Mark, Sounds of Silence, A Hearth's Warming Tail, Twilight's Kingdom and so many more.

We would never have met Starlight, Maud, Autumn Blaze, Thorax, Ember, the Young Six and Flurry Heart. We would never have seen Discord's transition into a hilarious comedy character or Daring Do as a real-world character or seen Twilight's Castle and the Cutie Map, the School of Friendship, The Changeling Kingdom, the Kirin village and Starlight and Trixie's friendship.

I've heard that a huge number of fans jumped ship after season 3. They don't know what they missed!

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7 hours ago, JMTV99 said:

For me personally, looking back on it, I think that ending at 65 was good enough run for the show. Don't get me wrong, it's great to see FiM lasted for so long. But at the same time, the more you go on for so long, the more you started to repeat yourself and became stale after awhile. So I think ending at 65 episodes was not a bad idea in hindsight, in my opinion.

78 episodes would have been better than 65. Season 3 should have been a full 26 episodes, instead of the cancelled season to wait for the Equestria Girls movie, and should have been fully overseen by Faust as well. Then, I would be totally fine with it!

 

But here is where things do change a little bit. Season 3 was still not a perfect animation with the designs of the ponies. Season 4 did not even get there. It was in Season 5 where I basically saw everything as flawless. Meaning, if the animation and design of the ponies had started from Season 5's quality, then I would have also been fine with just 3 seasons.
An example of animation changes was the ponies' nostrils from front view, that were further down in the ending of Season 3, than in later seasons. Just a little thing that makes a big difference to their cuteness.

Season 4 had a lot of weird dimensions for pony heads, especially Fluttershy's, looking larger than the rest. Also, their tail sometimes were located lower down than.... "preferable". Just because Maud was introduced in Season 4, and that epic DBZ battle at the season 4 finale, don't make that season just pass as good. Too many pasted Twilight wings, and too many friendship bullying situations (in Flutterbat episode alone), and the horrible result of the animation in Apples to the Core compared to the storyboard (which was super cute, and had potential), just did it for me, to leave the show there. I came back after Season 7 had ended. So yes, the show could easily had ended at the end of Season 3 for me. Thankfully, it didn't!

Thankfully, Forgotten Friendship special made Equestria Girls and FIM all perfect to me (though, I wish the real full version were available on Netflix, but no), and I wouldn't be here without that special! Aww Sunset Shimmer, you should have become an alicorn instead of Twilight! :sunny:❤️

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3 minutes ago, Splashee said:

78 episodes would have been better than 65. Season 3 should have been a full 26 episodes, instead of the cancelled season to wait for the Equestria Girls movie, and should have been fully overseen by Faust as well. Then, I would be totally fine with it!

Now that I can agree on.;)

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3 minutes ago, Splashee said:

But here is where things do change a little bit. Season 3 was still not a perfect animation with the designs of the ponies. Season 4 did not even get there. It was in Season 5 where I basically saw everything as flawless. Meaning, if the animation and design of the ponies had started from Season 5's quality, then I would have also been fine with just 3 seasons.
An example of animation changes was the ponies' nostrils from front view, that were further down in the ending of Season 3, than in later seasons. Just a little thing that makes a big difference to their cuteness.

Season 4 had a lot of weird dimensions for pony heads, especially Fluttershy's, looking larger than the rest. Also, their tail sometimes were located lower down than.... "preferable". Just because Maud was introduced in Season 4, and that epic DBZ battle at the season 4 finale, don't make that season just pass as good. Too many pasted Twilight wings, and too many friendship bullying situations (in Flutterbat episode alone), and the horrible result of the animation in Apples to the Core compared to the storyboard (which was super cute, and had potential), just did it for me, to leave the show there. I came back after Season 7 had ended. So yes, the show could easily had ended at the end of Season 3 for me. Thankfully, it didn't!

Thankfully, Forgotten Friendship special made Equestria Girls and FIM all perfect to me (though, I wish the real full version were available on Netflix, but no), and I wouldn't be here without that special! Aww Sunset Shimmer, you should have become an alicorn instead of Twilight! :sunny:❤️

Yeah, the animation is definitely the one thing I will admit got consistently better as the show went on, though I still do think the earlier seasons look great and I never was bugged by small details like this. Personally my favorite episodes animation wise are the ones that take place heavily at night or in the dark, I think that's where the animation style really shines. And yeah, Forgotten Friendship was awesome. I really do wish Equestria Girls actually had its own 22 minute episode series, there was a lot of wasted potential there. I would trade the Seasons 6-9 of FIM for 4 seasons of an actual Equestria Girls show anyday. Sunset is wonderful character and there was so much that could have been done with that world.

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2 minutes ago, Lone Traveler said:

I would trade the Seasons 6-9 of FIM for 4 seasons of an actual Equestria Girls show anyday. Sunset is wonderful character and there was so much that could have been done with that world.

You know what? I'll take that too, and this is coming from someone who was not a big fan of Equestria Girls.

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15 minutes ago, Splashee said:

78 episodes would have been better than 65. Season 3 should have been a full 26 episodes, instead of the cancelled season to wait for the Equestria Girls movie, and should have been fully overseen by Faust as well. Then, I would be totally fine with it!

I personally do not think Faust leaving is what hurt the show. I personally prefer Seasons 3 and 4 over the first 2, so I think that Meghan McCarthy did a great job as showrunner. I think the show declined once McCarthy and a lot of the old writers left.

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For me, I think it would've been a fine enough conclusion, however we'd definitely be missing out on a ton of quality content from the later seasons. Not to mention that there would be a lot of loose ends, which would've been a bit disappointing.

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