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

[Splashee 28,537]

2 minutes ago, Lone Traveler said:

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.

I'm just a Faust fanboy

If I had to chose between Faust and Flash (the animation program that made the thick outlines designs possible, which fits Faust's design of her earlier work), I would choose Flash! The ponies did get better and better, long after Faust left the show.

11 minutes ago, Lone Traveler said:

I would trade the Seasons 6-9 of FIM for 4 seasons of an actual Equestria Girls show anyday.

(Talking about ending at Season 3 for Equestria Girls instead) As in storytelling, a maybe. But in design, no. Ponies were always the more attractive choice for me.
Equestria Girls's character designs were not that great (horrible compared to some fan art), but some characters like Micro Chips was pretty interesting, and I wish we got more stories around them background Equestra Girls um, ponies? Boys? Girls? Highschoolers? I give up!

[Reality Check 627]

Absolutely not, cause I don't think it would've be as memorable as it is today. 3 seasons / 65 episodes just doesn't sound like enough episodes to give the show a lasting impression.

Besides, I don't think we wouldn't have episodes like Brotherhooves Social or The Perfect Pear in that case

[EpicEnergy 22,082]

I'm fine with the amount of episodes that we got, and I would have been sad if FiM ended earlier than it actually did.

[Reality Check 627]

28 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!

Am I the only that's just realising that this may be why season 3 has half the amount of episodes than the others?

[Splashee 28,537]

1 minute ago, Reality Check said:

Am I the only that's just realising that this may be why season 3 has half the amount of episodes than the others?

There is another more horrible reason for it:

Spoiler

This is probably more horrible than giving Twilight wings. The thing was just fitting the schedule of having Miss America featured. And the spoilers during the live airing was

 

Of course, some thought this was horrible also ->

[JMTV99 1,348]

3 minutes ago, Lone Traveler said:

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.

Yeah, the reason why old writers left due to they want to move on to their next gig. Megan McCarthy, who was been a writer of the show since Season 1 and became a co-executive producer and story editor since Season 3, left to work on the 2017 film. That, and she became the head of storytelling for Hasbro since 2015. Granted, she wrote story concepts for Season 6, but everything else was done by different people.

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

5 minutes ago, Reality Check said:

Am I the only that's just realising that this may be why season 3 has half the amount of episodes than the others?

Doubt it. Sixty-five episodes was a traditional benchmark for cartoons and series in order to go into syndication. MMC was originally the series finale before Hasbro had other plans.

[Lone Traveler 87]

Moments ago, Splashee said:

I'm just a Faust fanboy

If I had to chose between Faust and Flash (the animation program that made the thick outlines designs possible, which fits Faust's design of her earlier work), I would choose Flash! The ponies did get better and better, long after Faust left the show.

(Talking about ending at Season 3 for Equestria Girls instead) As in storytelling, a maybe. But in design, no. Ponies were always the more attractive choice for me.
Equestria Girls's character designs were not that great (horrible compared to some fan art), but some characters like Micro Chips was pretty interesting, and I wish we got more stories around them background Equestra Girls um, ponies? Boys? Girls? Highschoolers? I give up!

As much as I do like Equestria Girls in general, I do not like the girls' designs. The legs are way too long and their head are way too big, they would look so much nicer if they looked more like actual humans.  That being said, I got used to the weird design pretty quickly, and the actual movements and animation looks really good (with the exception of the first movie). I think the Equestria Girls movies and specials were really fun, even the ones I thought were rather flawed. I just really like the way the characters play off each other and I think that putting them in a human world was a fun idea. Like the show, it had such a positive and charming vibe. It had the same loveable characters in an environment that was completely different from the show, but also one they felt natural in, it opened up a ton of fun concepts involving magic, and it had an awesome new character on top of that! I thought that Equestria Girls was a really dumb idea before I actually watched the movies, but they managed to totally sell me on it! I always really hoped it would become its own show, especially after FIM declined so much. 

[Lone Traveler 87]

12 minutes ago, JMTV99 said:

Yeah, the reason why old writers left due to they want to move on to their next gig. Megan McCarthy, who was been a writer of the show since Season 1 and became a co-executive producer and story editor since Season 3, left to work on the 2017 film. That, and she became the head of storytelling for Hasbro since 2015. Granted, she wrote story concepts for Season 6, but everything else was done by different people.

I often wonder what the show would have been like post Season 5 with if McCarthy stayed the show-runner and the other old writers stayed (especially M.A. Larson). I wonder how different it would have been. I always thought that McCarthy and Larson were easily the best writers on the show.

Edited October 17, 2021 by Lone Traveler

[JMTV99 1,348]

1 minute ago, Lone Traveler said:

I often wonder what the show would have been like post Season 5 with if McCarthy stayed the show-runner and the other old writers stayed. I wonder how different it would have been. 

Well, I guess if the 2017 film would not existed, and Megan wasn't promoted, and the old writers would've stayed, then this thread like this would not existed too lol

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

5 hours ago, Dark Qiviut said:

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.

4 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

Doubt it. Sixty-five episodes was a traditional benchmark for cartoons and series in order to go into syndication. MMC was originally the series finale before Hasbro had other plans.

To add a bit more from my posts from Page 1 and here:

1. By having the sixty-five-episode threshold, Season 3 sometimes looked like they were cramming in as many "endings" as possible. Unfortunately, many more stories to tell remained, leaving the ends they try to tie up looser. After Season 4, FIM was extended for five more years. Even though the direction of the series changed season to season, the show had a gauge when to end. In S9, the show was able to go out on its own terms.

[Lone Traveler 87]

52 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

To add a bit more from my posts from Page 1 and here:

1. By having the sixty-five-episode threshold, Season 3 sometimes looked like they were cramming in as many "endings" as possible. Unfortunately, many more stories to tell remained, leaving the ends they try to tie up looser. After Season 4, FIM was extended for five more years. Even though the direction of the series changed season to season, the show had a gauge when to end. In S9, the show was able to go out on its own terms.

To me Season 3 never seemed like it was meant to be a conclusion at all. Magical Mystery Cure could have served as a conclusion for Twilight's arc (though a rushed and unsatisfying one), but literally none of the other loose ends for the other characters were wrapped up in season 3. If Season 3 was intended to be the last season, it did not feel like it.

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

30 minutes ago, Lone Traveler said:

To me Season 3 never seemed like it was meant to be a conclusion at all. Magical Mystery Cure could have served as a conclusion for Twilight's arc (though a rushed and unsatisfying one), but literally none of the other loose ends for the other characters were wrapped up in season 3. If Season 3 was intended to be the last season, it did not feel like it.

S3 was intended to be the last, with MMC the finale. When MA Larson submitted his MMC script for the last time in November 2011, it was to end the show. (The book closing to end The Last Problem was originally intended here.) Not long after, however, Hasbro ordered episodes for S4.

[Ganondorf8 11,118]

65 episodes is a magic number for a lot of cartoons as it means they can be syndicated and be shown in re-runs on a consistent basis. From a business perspective, that would've been enough for Hasbro to deem G4 a success and could use syndication to get some extra revenue. For the fans, it would've meant not getting the episodes that came in the subsequent seasons which further added lore to what had already been put into place.

[Lone Traveler 87]

30 minutes ago, Dark Qiviut said:

S3 was intended to be the last, with MMC the finale. When MA Larson submitted his MMC script for the last time in November 2011, it was to end the show. (The book closing to end The Last Problem was originally intended here.) Not long after, however, Hasbro ordered episodes for S4.

Season 3 is my 2nd favorite season of the show and Magical Mystery Cure is one of my favorite episodes, and even I think this would have been a disastrous way to end the show. For all of my issues with Season 9, at least it actually concluded its arcs.

[Astralshy 23,570]

Well ... I love all of MLP FiM seasons and I'm happy we've got this much of it.

Furthermore I always thought the strongest part of this shown were season 4 to 7 (6 was not so strong). Season 1-3 are already great, but they got topped by the middle part. I'm not completely convinced about how they executed this School of Friendship part, but ignoring this I think seasons 8-9 are also great and I love the ending of MLP:FiM. 

So I'm really glad we've got this much with this quality. Speaking about quality the constance of quality increased with every seasons. At the same time I'm happy it ended where it did. I've seen far too many times that a great show declined into nothingness cause it ran completely out of material. This is horrible for fan. I prefer a show to end on a high note with a feeling that shows me how much it means to me.

This is my opinion at least

[JMTV99 1,348]

2 hours ago, Astral Soul said:

Well ... I love all of MLP FiM seasons and I'm happy we've got this much of it.

Furthermore I always thought the strongest part of this shown were season 4 to 7 (6 was not so strong). Season 1-3 are already great, but they got topped by the middle part. I'm not completely convinced about how they executed this School of Friendship part, but ignoring this I think seasons 8-9 are also great and I love the ending of MLP:FiM. 

So I'm really glad we've got this much with this quality. Speaking about quality the constance of quality increased with every seasons. At the same time I'm happy it ended where it did. I've seen far too many times that a great show declined into nothingness cause it ran completely out of material. This is horrible for fan. I prefer a show to end on a high note with a feeling that shows me how much it means to me.

This is my opinion at least

That's fair.

[LonelyYugi 59]

Some of the best episodes happened after the first 65 episodes. So I'm glad the show continued after season 3.

 

Also as an Equestria Girls fan if Gen 4 had ended with season 3 we wouldn't have gotten the Equestria Girls movies, and Sunset Shimmer(best pony).

[Tacodidra 59,797]

No, season 4 was my favorite one (especially "Twilight's Kingdom"). And I enjoyed every single season and liked the characters introduced later in the series. We wouldn't even have had Coco in that case!

Also, it was nice to look forward to future episodes and specials – as I only joined in season 7, it would have been a very different experience if there had only been three seasons. Would I even have joined in the first place?

Edited October 18, 2021 by Tacodidra

[AppleButt 8,669]

38 minutes ago, Tacodidra said:

Also, it was nice to look forward to future episodes and specials – as I only joined in season 7, it would have been a very different experience if there had only been three seasons. Would I even have joined in the first place?

That’s also a good point.  Lots of amazing folks might’ve missed out on it had it not lasted longer.  There’s quite a few late joiners on here and I know that my experience in the fandom would be much different now without them.  

[Will Guide 21,325]

On 2021-10-16 at 7:22 PM, Reality Check said:

Am I the only that's just realising that this may be why season 3 has half the amount of episodes than the others?

That's precisely the reason why had it stopped at Season three it would have the golden number of syndication at 65 episodes

[Fritzy 1,690]

No. Because it just wouldn’t have ended on a good note. Plus too many good episodes happened after that so we’d have missed out on those.