What Would You Change/Rewrite About The Aspect of MLP:FIM?

[Splashee 28,537]

5 minutes ago, Totally Sunny said:

I'd change the season 7 finale to something else entirely and cut everything afterward. Remove the pony of shadows and the last two seasons. We really don't need the bad writing and Lyra abuse.

Season 7 was so nice, until the pillars. After that, Friendship of School..... I mean School of Friendship happened. Anyways, I would think the same, only Frenemies (S09E08) was really a good one I don't want to cut. What to do? Maybe there is a compromise? How to get Cozy Glow in without Schoolship of Friends? I don't know

 

  

3 minutes ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

I slightly disagree.

"Going to Seed" was the only episode I enjoyed after the Season 9 premier because, it didn't have major stakes like I felt every other

episode from the season did.

But the major stakes are the things I was waiting for... They kinda never happened. Except the Tree of Harmony destruction, which was handled badly.... Season 9 needs to be rewritten in my opinion

[Totally Nyx 35,478]

1 minute ago, Splashee said:

Season 7 was so nice, until the pillars. After that, Friendship of School..... I mean School of Friendship happened. Anyways, I would think the same, only Frenemies (S09E08) was really a good one I don't want to cut. What to do? Maybe there is a compromise? How to get Cozy Glow in without Schoolship of Friends? I don't know

The pillars, especially the one with the shovel, really did it in for me. I wasn't a fan of the student 6, except for Silverstream. I stopped watching before Frenemies, so I cant speak on that episode. I did love the kirin episode though, so I'd keep that one in.

[EpicEnergy 22,066]

I wouldn't change a thing, as I accept that G4 has flaws and I'm perfectly fine with that.

[Dark Qiviut 22,160]

8 hours ago, Sparklefan1234 said:

I also think "The Last Problem" and "Magical Mystery Cure" should have been hour long special's instead of feeling rushed like were.

MMC desperately needed to be two parts. Last Problem, OTOH, I disagree. The plot was far simpler in comparison, and the hijinks here fit with the moral the Mane Six learned and taught to Luster.

7 hours ago, Splashee said:

Season 9 really needed more of an ending for every Mane character. It was wasted on multiple episodes with no real impact.

The only ones I agree with you are the CMCs and Dash. Growing Up would've worked a lot better in a previous season, like Season 4 or six. Greaaat should've toned down Dash's selfishness and balanced with agreeing with Twi to try to help her students. The Last Crusade and Common Ground would've been much better "cap" episodes. (Going to Seed, while a fine episode in its own right, wasn't exactly a "cap," per se.) Rarity, Pinkie, Twi, and Fluttershy? Disagree.

7 hours ago, Totally Sunny said:

I'd change the season 7 finale to something else entirely and cut everything afterward.

That would be a big mistake. Shadow Play had less than half of the time compared to the movie despite way more content to deal with, yet SP balances the cast better, has tighter dialogue, and way better pacing. Shadow Play's tight dialogue, especially, carried over into Seasons 8 and 9; Horse Play, Break Down, Road to Friendship, Sparkle's Seven, Frenemies, and Big Mac Question held together in large part because of the dialogue.

On 2021-10-17 at 7:51 PM, Lone Traveler said:

Starlight herself should not have been redeemed here.

Strongly disagree.

1. One of the biggest differences between Starlight and 95% of all the villains in FIM is how she has a very gray morale. Yes, she was the villain in The Cutie Map, but she was also delusional to believe that her philosophy is the true Magic of Friendship and true harmony; no amount of FS outing her as a hypocrite changed that. Because of how TCM was written, the possibility of Starlight being reformed was possible.
2. Starlight is smarter and stronger than Twilight. Her to-go method of defeating Starlight (returning to the home of the butterfly effect to outmuscle her) failed. The only way TS was going to break through SG's obsession was to present her the consequences of her actions firsthand. When Starlight witnessed that wasteland, her delusions of grandeur finally began to break. Only from there did her philosophy crack further.
3. It's one thing for adult friends to fade away. It's another when it happens to children. Plus, Starlight's only friend was shipped off due to circumstances beyond her control. No goodbyes, no letters to each other, nothing. To her, if he never got that magician-related cutie mark, they would've never lost contact. (Their reunion in The Crystalling is the first time they contacted each other since childhood.) Her behavior in the climax explains why she loathed cutie marks so much, why she studied to become a strong witch, and why she established Our Town with utmost control; she didn't want something like that to ever happen again.
4. Because Starlight is both physically strong and emotionally vulnerable, reforming her makes the most sense. Twilight had to treat her not as a villain, but as an equal. Asking her to give the Magic of Friendship a second chance and offering her the help she needs was the best way to convince her. Even though Starlight had the fate of Equestria in her hooves, she accepted her offer.
   
   Punishing her also doesn't work. If Twilight and her friends decide to punish her, then Starlight's decision to accept her offer for help is pointless. Even worse, you're telling the audience that no matter how hard you try to turn your life around, those who promise to help you will betray you and toss you aside. They threw away one of their first ideas immediately — exiling her — for good reason. You're just starting from square one. Teaching her the Magic of Friendship and helping her however possible was the best and most proactive solution.

On 2021-10-17 at 7:51 PM, Lone Traveler said:

This episode is where MLP truly jumped the shark in my view.

Again, strongly disagree. Yes, Magic Sheep could've handled their story much better. Re-Mark is nowhere close to being on that level. Season 5 had many really good episodes despite not being nearly as consistent as Seasons 7 through 9, but when they got good, they got great. IIRC, after Mane Attraction, I considered S5 to be close to the best season of the show, with Re-Mark being the deciding factor. Re-Mark sealed it.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Dark Qiviut

[Meson Bolt 2,647]

Have it end at Season 6. Seriously, that was a capstone that could wrap up everything satisfactorily, but they just *had* to make more content, and now look at it. It's time to get the shotgun and tell it to look at the daisies.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Meson Bolt

[Lone Traveler 87]

On 2021-10-18 at 9:54 PM, Dark Qiviut said:

Strongly disagree.

1. One of the biggest differences between Starlight and 95% of all the villains in FIM is how she has a very gray morale. Yes, she was the villain in The Cutie Map, but she was also delusional to believe that her philosophy is the true Magic of Friendship and true harmony; no amount of FS outing her as a hypocrite changed that. Because of how TCM was written, the possibility of Starlight being reformed was possible.
2. Starlight is smarter and stronger than Twilight. Her to-go method of defeating Starlight (returning to the home of the butterfly effect to outmuscle her) failed. The only way TS was going to break through SG's obsession was to present her the consequences of her actions firsthand. When Starlight witnessed that wasteland, her delusions of grandeur finally began to break. Only from there did her philosophy crack further.
3. It's one thing for adult friends to fade away. It's another when it happens to children. Plus, Starlight's only friend was shipped off due to circumstances beyond her control. No goodbyes, no letters to each other, nothing. To her, if he never got that magician-related cutie mark, they would've never lost contact. (Their reunion in The Crystalling is the first time they contacted each other since childhood.) Her behavior in the climax explains why she loathed cutie marks so much, why she studied to become a strong witch, and why she established Our Town with utmost control; she didn't want something like that to ever happen again.
4. Because Starlight is both physically strong and emotionally vulnerable, reforming her makes the most sense. Twilight had to treat her not as a villain, but as an equal. Asking her to give the Magic of Friendship a second chance and offering her the help she needs was the best way to convince her. Even though Starlight had the fate of Equestria in her hooves, she accepted her offer.
   
   Punishing her also doesn't work. If Twilight and her friends decide to punish her, then Starlight's decision to accept her offer for help is pointless. Even worse, you're telling the audience that no matter how hard you try to turn your life around, those who promise to help you will betray you and toss you aside. They threw away one of their first ideas immediately — exiling her — for good reason. You're just starting from square one. Teaching her the Magic of Friendship and helping her however possible was the best and most proactive solution.

I don't necessarily disagree with any of this and I was not opposed to the idea of Starlight being reformed. I actually really liked her arc in the Season 6 finale (love that episode). My issue was with the execution of how she was reformed in The Cutie Re-Mark. I thought that there was not nearly enough time to make her seem sympathetic. She had enslaved a whole village and went on to risk the lives and livelihoods of everyone in Equestria out of a petty revenge quest. After she had done all of this dangerous crap, giving her a redemption in the timeframe of a few minutes by showing one bad thing that happened to her was just not enough to make it seem justified or satisfying at all. You do bring up very good points for why redeeming her was justified, I just don't think the show itself made these arguements very well in this episode. Now that I think about it, a redemption for her in the episode could have worked better for me if her backstory and motivations were revealed far earlier in the episode and we got to see her wrestle with doubts and have Twilight slowly break her into accepting friendship as it went. That way by the end it would have kept more justified and realistic and would have felt far more compelling and less rushed. So yeah, I'm actually changing my mind that they should not have redeemed her in the episode, I now just think it should have been done differently. 

On 2021-10-18 at 9:54 PM, Dark Qiviut said:

Again, strongly disagree. Yes, Magic Sheep could've handled their story much better. Re-Mark is nowhere close to being on that level. Season 5 had many really good episodes despite not being nearly as consistent as Seasons 7 through 9, but when they got good, they got great. IIRC, after Mane Attraction, I considered S5 to be close to the best season of the show, with Re-Mark being the deciding factor. Re-Mark sealed it.

I totally understand why people loved Cutie Re-Mark and saw it as a fun and compelling time travel story. I wish I felt the same, but for me the episode is ruined by how none of the timelines and possibilities really got explored. Every time I was excited to see what would happen in a timeline, they immediately switched to a different one! This was especially bad because of how Twilight, Spike, and Starlight were the only characters who we got to follow throughout the episode. As much as I like Twilight and Spike's dynamic, we already saw them go on adventures together in episodes such as Crystal Empire and Equestria Girls (1st movie). Those episodes showed their bond even more effectively for me, and on top of that still had the other cast members actually contributing to the story. None of the other characters in Cutie Re-Mark actually did anything since they were stuck in the constantly changing timelines. If the episode instead stuck to a single timeline and spent its time exploring that changed world and showed all the other ponies with their new lines, it could have been very interesting and fun and would have been a great exploration of the other characters. 

Starlight in the episode was a very meh villain for me, she was just angry the whole time, and not in a way that was interesting or fun (outside of the awesome scene where she indoctrinated Fluttershy and the kids bullying her). There was far more exciting action and climax in Canterlot Wedding and Twilight's Kingdom.  Overall, beyond having some interesting fanfic ideas with the timelines, Cutie Re-Mark offered little for me to enjoy compared to the other 2-parters which have far more focused plots and better character usage. The rushed Starlight redemption at the end definitely did not help it for me, but even without that issue I still would not have liked the episode. I consider it to be the show's jumping the shark point because I think it was a poorly done episode that introduced a major change to the show, and for me the show's quality fell massively after the episode and never truly recovered. I do think Season 5 is a good season as a whole, just not as good as the first 4.

Edited October 20, 2021 by Lone Traveler

[Tao 6,707]

Hmmmmmm

• More of the student 5 and their lives after the school a bit
• A better look at the history of the Two sisters, maybe something of a hour long specials.
• Season 3 for me was the forced one,  rewrite it!
• A bit more Starlight with  few more eps would have been nice.
• More Luna
• More look into the myths and legends of the pony world.

[Dark Horse 12,796]

I feel a little conflicted about the direction FiM took towards the end of its run, because while I really enjoyed the lore building and seeing the world of Equestria grow, I would have honestly preferred if many details and aspects of that were left up to viewer imagination. I already felt that the show was being brave introducing Starlight as a main character so late into its run. How on earth were they going to develop her in just a season or two? Well, apparently that didn't bother them because as we know they went on to introduce an entire B-Team into the series! That's where I felt things really started getting a bit silly. Suddenly we had all these additional elements thrown into a show that could have easily been its own spin-off series. I didn't see the point and it felt like a cheap excuse to keep things going for as long as they could get away with, as well insert some frankly poor attempts as social commentary.

I liked the idea of having other species in Equestria each with their own distinct and interesting culture (based off of real world cultures, nonetheless), but I felt the show almost immediately watered that down by having the Student Six become a carbon copy of the Mane 6 and making the final seasons get unnecessarily topical, trying too hard to show how they're all actually the "same" and that we shouldn't be focusing on their differences. Bleh... It would have been nice to keep elements of Equestria distinct and even mysterious instead of cheapening it with the incredibly cringe "Everycreature" lark.

I think it would have been much better had the focus never left the Mane 6, so that we only ever really seen these other parts of Equestrian lore from an outside perspective.

Oh, there are also quite a few episodes I would like to see stricken from the record simply for being terribly written, or messing with things that absolutely didn't need to happen.

[Sparklefan1234 161,651]

On 2021-10-18 at 12:45 AM, cuteycindyhoney said:

Fluttershy would be an only child...That is all.

 

In that same spirit, Scootaloo would actually be an orphan. 

[cuteycindyhoney 13,282]

On 2021-10-26 at 8:04 PM, Sparklefan1234 said:

 

In that same spirit, Scootaloo would actually be an orphan. 

In my own headcanon, I always thought Scootaloo was a run-a-way, and from a wealthy Cloudsdale family. She kept it hidden from the other crusaders. At least that's what I hoped for.

[Pastel Heart 6,463]

Hmm not too much I'd wanna change really, though I wouldn't make Twilight an alicorn, atleast not until the very end of the series and only if that's something peeps wanted. I feel like the whole thing with passings the torch to the mane 6 should been saved for the end and the friendship school been a different series. Also better writing for Sombra and Cozy cos I liked them a lot but don't think they got the best storylines

[horses are weird 23]

yeah.

 

make the show not try hard to be dark, that's what the fandom is for.

Edited November 9, 2021 by horses are weird

[TheDarkMare1939 10]

On 2021-10-17 at 5:44 PM, TomDaBombMLP said:

I’d only remove the entire concept of the School of Friendship and the Student Six.  Other than that, I wouldn’t want to change a thing! 

Not a bad idea. Season 8 could've been the final Season instead and had Grogar as the main overarching villain for the final episodes. 

Would that have been better to see? Or you prefer a different way?

[Tom Gallagher 33,521]

9 hours ago, TheDarkMare1939 said:

Not a bad idea. Season 8 could've been the final Season instead and had Grogar as the main overarching villain for the final episodes. 

Would that have been better to see? Or you prefer a different way?

I think it would've been much better. I've never liked the last episode we got so I think that would've been a better ending.

Edited January 18, 2022 by TomDaBombMLP

[Stancet 673]

What would I have changed?

Applejack as the element of Honesty and Rainbow Dash as the element of Loyalty. There is fan speculation that their characters would have been better developed if they switched their elements. Applejack is extremely loyal because she has the most adult responsibilities, which also happens to be the majority of the problems she overcomes. Rainbow Dash is also brutally honest and could more easily be the object lesson of when and how to tell the truth.

[Stancet 673]

I also have my issues with season 9. I do believe there are some legitimate problems with season 9 as many reviewers pointed out, but I only take it personally because I was sad to see the series end, and everything feels worse to you when something good is coming to an end. However, introducing us to a new villain, Grogar, and then subverting our expectations by revealing he was really Discord in disguise so he could reintroduce Tyrek, Cozy and Chrysalis as the series last villains (when they were mostly already defeated) simply to stir up a conflict for the Mane 6... that subverted my expectations too much. I would have preferred the real Grogar, so we could have another big reveal, or another original conflict so season 9 could have something uniquely it's own before we had to say goodbye to FiM.

However, I'm not one of those controlling fanboys. I'm pretty easy going so I choose to be thankful for the series we got.

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,690]

One change I would like is to remove any instances when the villains of the series refer to themselves as villains.

[Orchid_Fiore 199]

The 3 final seasons, I would rewrite the story to have the same quality as the previous seasons.

[TwilyEllie 3]

Oh, I would change a lot. But also a lot of things would stay the same. The broad strokes – the core structure of the story – would probably stay mostly the same. 

Starting with the first episode, Nightmare Moon would be explicitly recognized by the ponies from legends – they'd simply be in disbelief that she was actually real, standing before them in the flesh.  It really seemed off to me that absolutely no one knew who she was, even though the legend would surely be known by others, as was established in the later episodes.

Second, more creatures. Sheep, cows, etc. should've gotten some more love, depicted as fully sapient, independent beings and drawn in the same cute style as ponies.

(Art by TwistedHiccy)

And I have to say, I'd probably have been quite a bit harsher on Discord. It annoys me how everyone just puts up with him even though he keeps deliberately causing trouble for everyone.

Edited January 31, 2022 by TwilyEllie

[TwilyEllie 3]

35 minutes ago, TwilyEllie said:

depicted as fully sapient, independent beings

And I know that sheep and cows in the show do occasionally speak, I just mean this in the sense of actually living in their own villages in different parts of Equestria, rather than being mostly depicted as livestock that only speaks as a throwaway gag.

Edited January 31, 2022 by TwilyEllie

[xLuneti 54]

If anything, I would make Twilight stay in Ponyville in the final. There's a part of me that thinks Celestia forcing Twilight to be the new ruler was a final lesson, Twilight was supposed to say she wants to stay with her friends in Ponyville, she ALREADY HAS A CASTLE THERE, why Luna couldn't rule if Celestia wanted to left the throne also?

[SunsetShimmerStan 20]

On 2021-10-20 at 1:08 PM, Dark Horse said:

I feel a little conflicted about the direction FiM took towards the end of its run, because while I really enjoyed the lore building and seeing the world of Equestria grow, I would have honestly preferred if many details and aspects of that were left up to viewer imagination. I already felt that the show was being brave introducing Starlight as a main character so late into its run. How on earth were they going to develop her in just a season or two? Well, apparently that didn't bother them because as we know they went on to introduce an entire B-Team into the series! That's where I felt things really started getting a bit silly. Suddenly we had all these additional elements thrown into a show that could have easily been its own spin-off series. I didn't see the point and it felt like a cheap excuse to keep things going for as long as they could get away with, as well insert some frankly poor attempts as social commentary.

I liked the idea of having other species in Equestria each with their own distinct and interesting culture (based off of real world cultures, nonetheless), but I felt the show almost immediately watered that down by having the Student Six become a carbon copy of the Mane 6 and making the final seasons get unnecessarily topical, trying too hard to show how they're all actually the "same" and that we shouldn't be focusing on their differences. Bleh... It would have been nice to keep elements of Equestria distinct and even mysterious instead of cheapening it with the incredibly cringe "Everycreature" lark.

I think it would have been much better had the focus never left the Mane 6, so that we only ever really seen these other parts of Equestrian lore from an outside perspective.

Oh, there are also quite a few episodes I would like to see stricken from the record simply for being terribly written, or messing with things that absolutely didn't need to happen.

If you think the Student Six and School of Friendship shouldn't exist, how would you have done the story of seasons 8-9? Like, what story arc would you come up with for seasons 8 and 9 in a way that still explores the other species of Equestria world building and give a new direction for Twilight (since the School of Friendship is part of her character arc in spreading friendship to others)?

 

Also, what made Adventure Time work when the later seasons of that show started doing episodes focusing on characters outside of Finn and Jake? Considering how Adventure Time ran almost as long as MLP Friendship is Magic and started doing more world building as it went on, what stopped that show from facing the same issues as MLP in trying to flesh out the world and characters beyond the main duo?

Edited 44 minutes ago by SunsetShimmerStan