Why is Transformers allowed to be dark, but MLP can't

[TheMarkz0ne 962]

I find it ironic that bronies broke the stereotype of gender. HOWEVER! We are actually wrong. Trasnformers back in the 80s and well pretty much to this day was intended for 6-8 year old boys. I didn't grow up with G1, I wasn't born in the 80s. But I remember my older cousin having the VHS tapes of G1 and I use to watch them. I was mainly into Armada which was my series. That cartoon was pretty dark at points. So why can't MLP have some dark stuff. I mean in 1986 Hasbro went all out and barely made the PG rating for the Transformers movie. I mean these girls are already older now, they should be able to handle some darkness. To sum it up.....What people are basically saying is darkness is for boys only, but not for girls 

[EcstaticWind 572]

And Discord isn't dark? What he did in season 2 was just the start of his plans.

 

And what about Sombra? True, he has the personality of one of his crystals, but he had some pretty dark stuff.

 

Transformers is just less subtle about how dark their stuff is

[Koori 156]

Many got traumatized after watching Transformers G1 movie since it was a pretty rare thing to see a main character die... and at such early part of the movie. And the series itself in turn was pretty much dark after season 3 started. The worst thing was that people HAD to see the movie to understand things or otherwise they'd end up confused when watching season 3.

 

As for MLP... if I remember correctly the first movie showed pretty dark things too like imprisoning and turning ponies into something else. Not something you'd expect in an animated movie intended for young girls. Same thing for the second movie though that one wasn't as dark as the first one.

[Anadu Kune 668]

There is darkness in mlp. Beings who take on the form of the one you most love and absorb the love directed at them converting it into power. A being who subjugated an entire race into slavery, banished said race from reality, and erased said races collective memory. A door that reveals your darkest fear. An amulet the corrupts its user with its own dark power. A being who subverts the main characters into believing lies and manipulates their minds. The darknness may not be as pronounced but its there. One of the reasons I like the show is that its not as dark, but its still well done. If I want something really dark I'll read Warhammer 40K. 

Transformers took a bit to get to where it is now. You go watch G1 series and tell me its not silly as all hell. Its got some darkness in it, but man its pretty freaking silly. Don't get me wrong I love Transformers. 

Galvatron: Coronation Twilight? This is bad comedy

Twilight: Who are you

Galvatron: HERE'S A HINT!!!

 

[AstralDrip 67]

Because not everything needs to try so hard to be "dark" and "edgy". MLP:FiM is about as dark as it can be without becoming a complete joke. At the end of the day, it's still a show about cartoon ponies and friendship. If it takes itself too seriously, it will not longer seem so genuine and honest.

 

There are a lot of great shows that get really dark and do it right. I'm just as big of a fan of A Game of Thrones as MLP, but I appreciate that they are very different from one another (but are also fantasy both shows). I need the variety and I like MLP as a break from all the drama.

 

I hope I didn't sound too rude

[Rainbow Dash Loyalty 1,274]

Well there is a little bit of 'dark' stuff in MLP, Sombra looked like a carnivorous unicorn who enslaved a whole Empire. I think Pinkamenia is a pretty dark moment in the show as Pinkie turns into a depressing character, but honestly I wouldn't want the show to become any darker, there are still some young girls who watch the show, it's not all grown up males and females. 
 

[NavelColt 22,876]

Because Transformers is targeted initially to a young -boy- audience, while MLP:FiM, while very gender neutral catches the initial attention of a younger -female- audience. There's going to be small limitations on that stuff inherently.

[Argumedies 1,748]

While FIM has its dark moments I wouldn't say they are better or worse then those of the 80's in fact there are two moments where a ponys life was in jeopardy where Rarity fell from the sky and Scootaloo went over the falls

 

Even though they both ended positive doesn't make the fact that their lives were at stake any less dramatic and kids do pick up on this.

 

Now that said, I do remember a cartoon show from back then that actually killed several characters off including a main character but this was a hybrid manga and ya gotta remember that writers back then had a lot more wiggle room for such content and our parents were not as squeemish/paranoid back then.

 

Its not until the 90/00's where parents threw their kids under the rocks and made everything politicly correct where we find more en-light-end entertainment.

 

I for one am glad to see shows like FIM dealing with these topics in ways that walk that fine line and maybe some day the world will quit being afraid of the dark

[duidamasterXD 9,626]

This thread appears to be discussing MLP:FiM in some way, shape or form. Thus, it has been sentenced to Show Discussion.<br /><br />This is an automatically generated message, by the way.

[FoxyCryptid 4,327]

Because Transformers picked it's periphery demographic years(and several shows) ago. MLP is just now gaining anything but a niche following with FiM, so it's still breaking the mold. 

[angrysalamence 49]

To be honest I don't think it is anything to do with gender steryotyping, but is infact storyline and genre. Transformers is set is a war, so there is bound to be alot of dark moments, as that is the horror of war. MLP is based in a peaceful land, but that's not to say there isn't dark moments.

 

Also, Anadu, I loved what you did with the reference to Starscream's coronation. XD

[Dark Qiviut 22,173]

Although the show is pastel, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic actually had several dark moments that really teetered the strict TV-Y content rating.

1. Sonic Rainboom: Rarity's wings evaporating, making her plunge, only to be rescued by Rainbow Dash in the form of a Sonic Rainboom.
2. A Bird in the Hoof: Philomena bursting into flames, signifying death, upsetting Fluttershy and making her believe she failed as a caretaker.
3. The Return of Harmony, Part 2 was actually quite dark. Ponyville descended into disarray, and the Mane Six — Twilight and her discorded friends — were all fighting because Twilight couldn't retrive her book and no one else besides Spike behaved. When the Elements of Harmony failed, Twilight turned into shades of gray and plodded towards the Library depressed while her whole world collapsed. Combined with the music, it was a pretty dark moment. The only reason it wasn't perceived that way was because the writing was great, and there were many hilarious moments in between to keep the audience attentive.
4. Lesson Zero: In a sense that not completing her tasks on time equals failing and regressing in her studies, she became irrational and crazy. She began seeing things she shouldn't, and her judgment was so clouded that she decided to artificially create a friendship problem to complete her assignment.
   
   I think everyone here remembers this:
   
5. Putting Your Hoof Down: Quite possibly the most visible dark episode up to that point. Fluttershy became Flutterbitch after taking Iron Will's training way too much to heart, making her ultra-aggressive and an even bigger pushover than some of the ponies she saw. It turned her into a monster, resulting in that sad sequence with her walking back home and being tied up within a gloomy gray sky.
6. Wonderbolts Academy: This moment here.

And those are just some examples.

 

But compared to Transformers's variation of "dark" (then and now) compared to MLP:FIM now is the content rating. TV-Y is the strictest and most aggressive of them all, so thematic moments to the point fo really dramatic may violate content guidelines. MLP:FIM is rated TV-Y, so they have to be really careful not to made the dark moments too graphic, dramatic, or thematic. Transformers, meanwhile, is under a TV-Y7 rating, which provides a little more leeway.

[Fhaolan 4,468]

Yeah, the main reason FiM isn't allowed to be 'dark' is because the writers/producers are chasing the TV-Y rating. It's got nothing to do with gender, just the rating, which opens up certain markets and advantageous timeslots for broadcasting. Which is really a bit of a relic of the network-biased days.

 

Hasbro is still uncomfortable as a media-company and has shoved the responsibility of all that kind of stuff onto a partially-owned subsidiary (the Hub), which is actually managed by a different company: Discovery Communications. It's Discovery that is calling a lot of the shots over there, with Hasbro's permission, and they're still modeled after old-fashioned Networks. They're still using those ratings as a gate for advertisers.

[Crispy 5,563]

Let's also consider the fact that there are plenty of places to find darkness elsewhere.  This show is refreshing in it's lighthearted ways.

 

Dark, super srs stuff is for fanfiction.  Dig in and build yourself a headcanon.

[Power of Dashie 18]

I dunno, I think if you read the comics published by IDW (Which, by the way, you totally should), They can get pretty dark at times. Like, Rarity getting abducted. Not that I'm saying that hasn't happened before. I should stop talking.

[Darker 1,351]

TV-Y. Also, Transformers is ment to be for more grown-ups. Also, in Mlp,G1, they were almost equally as dark only that after the very first episode they decided to lower the thing a little bit.

 

And in MLP there's not a single thing that is pretty dark to the point of being either violent or seen damage on certain ponies. Twilight's Kingdom fight doesn't count, it was a huge reference to DBZ.