MLP:FiM; A more serious show?

[Malinter 3,064]

I like the show as it is but i'm sure some folks would like it to touch on more serious topics related to the show itself like what actually happened to AJ's folks and the actual reason why Scootaloo can't fly when even new borns can with ease.

[Rinkitty 589]

It's a show about candy-colored ponies partaking in adventures in the magical land of Equestria and learning the true power of friendship with every episode. How much more serious can you get??

[Smitty91 57]

What about Courage the cowardly dog show and its grimdark monsters and ghosts, Samurai Jack with aku and some filler villains, Powerpuff Girls with Mojo Jojo and HIM being badass, heck even Cow and Chiken had a really creepy villain.

And heck even nowdays Adventure Time has some Really scary villains like Lich.

 

Exactly my point! Those shows pushed the boundaries of what they could do and get away with on a kids' cartoon, but My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic doesn't seem to be doing that. 

[Mywas 687]

Exactly my point! Those shows pushed the boundaries of what they could do and get away with on a kids' cartoon, but My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic doesn't seem to be doing that.

 

They tried to do it in Magic Duel and The Crystal Empire, but Magic Duel had a lot of hype about a magic duel but in the end it turned out to have a comical relief ending, and I heard that The Crystal Empire had a lot of deleted scenes and one of them was King Sombra creating some undead ponies made out of dark Magic and have them attack the mane five, but Hasbro thought it was too dark.

[FNGRpony 655]

Has anyone ever pondered what would happen if the creative staff behind MLP decided to make it more "officially" intended for the older fanbase? I don't mean just references, but in a general sense.

 

Won't ever happen, but it's something to ponder.

 

 

You mean MLP being up graded from g to pg or pg13 if you will?

MLP going in a simpson's like prime time slot.  See it could work, but than Everyone really would know about broneys LOL I mean everyone.

 

I think if they were gonna go for the older crowd they'd have to throw it on later in the day to try and discourage the younger crowd from peaking at it,

which would only egg them on.

"ZOMG PONY AFTER DARK IS ON!"

I mean forbidden my little pony LOL on tv that just sounds awesome.

 

I mean if i heard someone scream out "Buck yeah!" that's gonna be on like donkey kong.

They tried to do it in Magic Duel and The Crystal Empire, but Magic Duel had a lot of hype about a magic duel but in the end it turned out to have a comical relief ending, and I heard that The Crystal Empire had a lot of deleted scenes and one of them was King Sombra creating some undead ponies made out of dark Magic and have them attack the mane five, but Hasbro thought it was too dark.

 

Got a source for that heard part LOL.  I mean I just wanna know more.

I heard off one of tommy olivers videos the other day Lauren faust said Trixie is from the same school at twilight,

 

but sense she isn't with the show anymore that means that's just head canon, the same as everyone elses ^^ but hay that's a source.

Edited October 3, 2013 by FNGRpony

[Mywas 687]

Got a source for that heard part LOL.  I mean I just wanna know more.

 

A friend on derpibooru told me. Its just a rumor really and it might not be true, but imagine how badass that would have been.

Heck, Why aren't there any cool minions in MLP? Snips and Snails were pathetic, NMMs Shadowbolts and beasts were defeated too easily, and the Changeling were mindless and even Fluttershy was able to defeated a lot of them with one shots. Look at The doflamingo family, THOSE are minions.

[FNGRpony 655]

A friend on derpibooru told me. Its just a rumor really and it might not be true, but imagine how badass that would have been.

Heck, Why aren't there any cool minions in MLP? Snips and Snails were pathetic, NMMs Shadowbolts and beasts were defeated too easily, and the Changeling were mindless and even Fluttershy was able to defeated a lot of them with one shots. Look at The doflamingo family, THOSE are minions.

Hay i'm a venture brothers fan,

I love fodder lol.

 

Sides their be something neat about a redeemed minion coming back to help take down his or her old master.

Ever see that jackie chan cartoon where the sumo wrestler that turned good?

He became alot fun in both rolls.

[Smitty91 57]

They tried to do it in Magic Duel and The Crystal Empire, but Magic Duel had a lot of hype about a magic duel but in the end it turned out to have a comical relief ending, and I heard that The Crystal Empire had a lot of deleted scenes and one of them was King Sombra creating some undead ponies made out of dark Magic and have them attack the mane five, but Hasbro thought it was too dark.

 

See? That's what I'm talking about. Why is Hasbro afraid to do edgy stuff like that? I got the feeling while watching "Magic Duel" that it was supposed to be a lot more epic, like maybe having the amulet Trixie was wearing make her stronger, but also draining away her life in the process, thus killing her in the end (I doubt anyone would care anyway since she's one of the most hated characters from the show). About the "Crystal Empire" scenes, I guarantee you they got that idea from Disney's "The Black Cauldron." 

[FNGRpony 655]

See? That's what I'm talking about. Why is Hasbro afraid to do edgy stuff like that? I got the feeling while watching "Magic Duel" that it was supposed to be a lot more epic, like maybe having the amulet Trixie was wearing make her stronger, but also draining away her life in the process, thus killing her in the end (I doubt anyone would care anyway since she's one of the most hated characters from the show). About the "Crystal Empire" scenes, I guarantee you they got that idea from Disney's "The Black Cauldron." 

 

I was gonna say black cauldron while i was reading your post,

but again Disney gets away with alot cause well,

it's disney.  It's an Empire lol.  Disney can eat legions of angry soccer moms for break fest lol.

 

I think trixie would have been a bit much.  Unless we we're getting trixies dis jointed spirit (ala star scream lol from transformers).

[SomariFeyWright 776]

My two bits: I'm not ENTIRELY against the idea. If the show can make itself slightly darker while still holding the charm and underlying morals that made it great, it COULD make a great show. But to be perfectly honest, the idea still alienates me quite a bit. The idea of characters dying, or villains being too much of a threat, or anything of that sort. It's still My Little Pony, and there are many qualities that distinguish it as a show from other shows.

 

Besides, we don't all like shows being dark where they really shouldn't be.

 

I'm glaring at you, Invader ZIM.

 

So yeah, the idea could, very possibly, with a LOT of skill, work. But I think I'll stick with the light-hearted, slice-of-life feeling the show has given honestly.

 

 

 

like maybe having the amulet Trixie was wearing make her stronger, but also draining away her life in the process, thus killing her in the end (I doubt anyone would care anyway since she's one of the most hated characters from the show)

 

 

... If this happened in the show, I'd stop watching the new episodes, plain and simple. There is not a single character on the show that deserves to die. Not even antagonistic non-villains.

[--Thunder Bolt-- 534]

1) Why does "serious" have to equal "grimdark?"  Why can't a portrayal of a benign, functional society and lessons on how to live cooperatively with others in such a society ("Friendship" as the "magic" that "makes it all complete") qualify as "serious?"

 

2) There is already plenty of "seriousness" of the dark-ish sort in the show, it's just crafted so that its presence is open to interpretation.

 

Childhood Trauma:

 

Twilight appears to have been so traumatized by her experiences in Magic Kindergarten that the possibility of being late with a single assignment.  The prospect of being sent back there, no matter how remote, was enough to make her come unhinged and start using mind-control spells on children.  We can join the target audience in just enjoying the show as comedic cartoon fun.  Or, if we want to be "serious," we can start to wonder: just what do they teach in "Magic Kindergarten," and how do they teach it, if the experience is enough to leave a young mare scarred for life?  Alternatively, if Twilight is just extremely oversensitive and mentally fragile, is it wise to trust her with huge amounts of magical and political power?  Why is there no regulation of dangerous magic and no societal effort to keep it out of the horns of mentally unstable (Twilight) or criminal (Trixie in Magic Duel) individuals?

 

Twilight isn't the only one deeply wounded by her childhood.  In Cutie Mark Chronicles, we see that both Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were bullied as fillies, apparently with no adult supervision to keep it in check.  The taunting drove RD to become so competitive that she doesn't even notice that the friend she entered the race to stick up for is plunging to her death.  If not for the "lucky" appearance of a flock of butterflies, and their wildly improbable ability to catch Fluttershy, RD's "victory" in the race could have had a very tragic outcome.  For her part, Fluttershy is quick to abandon her home and family as soon as she meets some friendly animals.  She's a young child when this happens, and no one tries to stop her or at least see to it that she has somebody to look after her.  What does this tell us about her prior life in Cloudsdale?  The explosions of pent-up rage that get out every once in awhile (especially in the Iron Will episode) are another indication that all is not well in the city of clouds and rainbows.  In the same episode, we're given a glimpse of a sad and miserable filly Pinkie (Pinkamena Diane) Pie, whose childhood left her with symptoms bordering on Multiple Personality Disorder.

 

Race and Class:

 

The culture of Equestria is aggressively pony-centric, even though there are numerous types of non-pony sapients in its world.  The place names, the language ("anypony," "nopony," etc.) the political structure (only ponies have political power) all point to a world where ponies are a highly privileged race.  We (English-speaking--not so sure about other languages, e.g. Chinese) humans, who do not share a world with other sapients like us (no elves, dwarves, orcs, griffins, dragons, etc.), employ a much more inclusive and species-neutral set of linguistic conventions.  As an audience, we could just Enjoy The Show and take all the pony-isms as a fun layer of flavor for a show about little candy-colored ponies...  Or, if we want "seriousness," we could view Equestria as a brutal pony tyranny, with most of the unpleasantness kept out of sight.  Consider: the Apple Family's livestock are people...of other races.  There's a term for that, I think it starts with an 's.' 

 

If we imagine aliens watching a show about life in the Palace of Versailles, but without seeing the exploitation and squalor that made it possible, perhaps they might think that Earth was a lovely fantastical utopia, start calling themselves Humies and fantasize about coming here to leave their own mundane, imperfect world behind.  Sun King...Sun Princess...  Hmmm.

 

And so on.  The "seriousness" is there, if you want it.  It's just subtly-placed enough that the viewer can choose to see it, or not, as a matter of interpretation.  Which is brilliant, IMO.

 

Moving beyond the "dark" aspects, there's plenty of other levels of seriousness in the show, such as the esoteric and scientific symbolism hidden in plain sight, or the chain of synchronicity linking the M6 together (Cutie Mark Chronicles) long before they ever met, implying a subtle form of transcendent guidance and intervention (in Fluttershy's case, acting to rescue her from a premature death by breaking physics with a flock of butterflies) in their lives.  There's metaphysics and myth and mystery aplenty.  The show is already very deep.  It doesn't need grit, zombies, more violence, or more evil to make it a serious show.

 

One more thing:

 

Question: Why can't FiM be more like [insert other cartoon here] with its scarier villains and more serious themes?

 

Answer: Because it's doing a very good job of being like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and it ought to stay that way.

[Misty Shadow 7,199]

Eh...I've actually grown to like the show best when it's being silly. I'm definitely more in support of it having more moments of dark comedy rather than more moments of seriousness.

[Scootalove 10,684]

I never really expected a show like My Little Pony to have serious themes, and stick to the themes with morality. The show even has some disturbing yet scary images, so the show has a serious tone.

[FoxyCryptid 4,328]

I wouldn't necessarily make it darker, but I'd love to see a lot more the big epic stuff we get to begin and close out seasons, Maybe some actual over-arcing plots that follow across whole seasons.  

[DokiLoki 518]

I hope they don't make it that serious otherwise I'll stop liking the show. Besides, isn't MLP:FIM focused on the subject: comedy?

[the_pony_element 5]

I do remember reading on the show's wiki about the relationship between Lauren Faust and the show and when she made the decision to leave the team. I can't be sure because it was a wiki, but it did say that Fall Weather Friends was going to be totally different from what we have now. Hasbro thought such a serious, dark tone would not far well with the audience.

[Nature's Spell 526]

I like the show as written and to be honest I'd rather the writers focus on strengthing the cannon and backstory. Make more of an effort to make things make sense and be consistent.

[Darker 1,351]

In G1 MLP was both dark and mature. In the FiM comics it's also a bit more serious.

[Pastel 7,627]

Not really. There're a few exceptions: Twilight's Kingdom, A Canterlot Wedding, Lesson Zero...

But it's still a kids show most of the time.

Edited September 1, 2014 by Blobulle

[Invincible 2,090]

Well, the entire tone of the show would need to change from the ground up. The show was intended for young audiences from the get go, so things like proper setting and morals played a huge part in it's creation. As good as it turned out to be for older fans, it'll need to stop pulling punches if it's ever officially set for older viewers. Not gonna happen, obviously, but this is what i'm thinking here.

[Everleaf 541]

Well as long as it does not get (too) serious I'm fine besides a younger crowd watched too...oh and I like my humor.    

[The Crimson Cross 7,532]

There are a couple of serious notes covered in the show, but it seems to retain a great deal of innocence.

To me, it'd be good to cover more serious themes

*sets up hate shield*

but after all it's a children's show and bronies aren't the only audience for MLP.

I could see it happening a little bit more but not a great deal.