Why doesn’t anyone talk about G2?

[IridescentEdge 129]

The title kind of summarizes the main idea here. I’ve never actually seen the classic gens, but I’ve still heard discussion about them, except for G2. Why is this the case? What was G2 about and what made it so apparently bad?

[Snoopy Fan 5,495]

That’s actually a pretty good question.

[SidewinderX 39]

4 hours ago, IridescentEdge said:

The title kind of summarizes the main idea here. I’ve never actually seen the classic gens, but I’ve still heard discussion about them, except for G2. Why is this the case? What was G2 about and what made it so apparently bad?

I haven't seen any of the older generations either (I haven't even seen all of G4), but I think the main reason is that it has been overshadowed by...everything. G1 was the OG My Little Pony, and pretty decent to boot. G3 was an attempt to capitalize on the direct-to-video craze and suffered, therefore becoming a sort of 'cursed' or 'bad' generation because of that. G4 was, well, G4, and G5 was a massive flunk commercially that was so discussed because it came directly on the heels of the rise of one of the most influential fandoms in modern history, and possibly helped tank that fandom. G2 just doesn't have anything special that makes people want to watch it. It just exists.

Edited Thursday at 02:33 AM by SidewinderX

[Fhaolan 4,489]

That's because G2 was a very... odd generation. It didn't have any animations or cartoons, just one video game. Plus, the toy line was almost exclusively marketed outside of North America. I'm under the impression there were European comic books for G2, but I've never seen them myself.

What a number of people assume was G2 was the 'My Little Pony Tales' cartoon series, but that was basically a second run at G1 with a different setting, but the same art-style. Actual G2 toys and illustrations looked quite different from G1, being much taller and thinner. 

The character list for G2 was also completely revamped. To my knowledge there were *no* characters from G1 that transitioned to G2. And none went from G2 to G3. Near the end of G4's run there were some background ponies that showed up that were from G2, I think, but I can't remember off-hand which ones they were.

But the main reason why G2 isn't talked about, is because this site and others came into existence because of the G4/FiM cartoon series, and since there wasn't a true G2 cartoon series to do any comparison/analysis on, it gets skipped as if it didn't happen at all.

[rascalrat 55]

ive been a fan since g3 tho i didn't ever hear anything of g2. its so nonexistent g4 mine as well be called g3.

[StaryStory 3,970]

I saw very few content from the classic generations, only the first 15 episodes of G1 (MLP'n Friends) and a few clips from G3 and G3.5. I never saw anything from G2 except for some images of the toys and promotional art. I can say that I think I like the art style, though I don't know if I prefer this or the G1 art style, I think the ponies are meant to look more cute, well, it's definitely more cute than G3 (for me, at least). I actually think G3.5's art style seems more inspired by G2 than G3 really. Their width look kinda weird to me.

A shame there was no animated production for it, would be interesting to see it in movement. Like Fhaolan said, I also thought a time ago that MLP Tales was some kind of a G2 related production that for some reason used the same art style as G1. 

At best, I could only find comics related to G2 in this tumblr blog 

Edited Friday at 10:57 PM by StaryStory

[VinylWubs 1,275]

I always assumed My Little Ponies Tales was G2 but apparently not. It wasn't widely known to many people, only consisting of one video game and a few toy lines. From what I can discover, it had a PC game called 'Friendship Gardens' where you design and care for your very own My Little Pony, teaching her to jump and to gain enough courage to eventually cross the rainbow. Though, this is based off research since I didn't have the game as a child.

The toys were kind of unique with having gems for eyes:  



I remember this vividly as I had one of these as a child and thought they were so cool. Granted, I got one of these well after 1997 since I wasn't born until 2003 (G3 began around then and ended in 2009). 


But coming back to the reason why G2 isn't talked as often as the other gens (G1, G3, G3.5 (yes, there's a reason why), G4 and G5) is explained quite nicely above by Fhaolan. With G2, I think around that time they were focusing on the toy line. Also, because while Europe loved it, it was... kind of a flop in the US. It only lasted a year from 1997 and despite the toys and video game, it had no TV show/animated show. So, it gets skipped by the majority of MLP fans, especially those whose first introduction to MLP was G4. But to those who first got introduced to MLP by G1 or G3, they have a slight idea on G2.

EDIT: It's 1997, not 1977. My bad!

Edited Saturday at 10:39 AM by VinylWubs

[IridescentEdge 129]

I think it's time for some good, old-fashioned Google searching.