Unpopular Pony Opinions

[Zapper]

Honestly I think calling any TV show "so-and-so's story" is kind of a logical fallacy. TV shows are made by lots of people, not just one! :p

I guess it's because Lauren Faust developped it for TV and then left the show after two seasons but still stayed in contact with her fans who saw her departure as a mistake by Hasbro.

A lot of fans have spun her leaving into evil guy Hasbro trying to meddle with her ~vision and she quitting in tears. When in fact she left to work on her husband's Disney show and could have stayed at Hasbro if she would have wanted to. A lot of fans even believe she is the sole creator of MLP and when someone is regarded so highly it can affect their reputation.

Back when FiM was starting out and gaining fans Lauren would even be credited with co-creating Powerpuff Girls, even though she just worked on that show (again a show by her husband) 

[Carrehz]

oh man the crediting-Lauren-for-PPG thing drove me up the wall, I'm glad I don't see that any more. I mean I'm not saying she didn't do some great work on it, but sheesh!

[Zapper]

I will admit, that a lot of my "Lauren did everything!" mentality back in the day was because I was soaking up the comments that seemed to be saying "Lauren did next to nothing!", so I felt she was underappreciated.

Yeah, the Lauren bashing could go this direction, where she suddenly was a nothing and her name was just miraculously attached to FiM

She developped FiM for TV, which is not quite the same as creator. She did not create MLP.
However, she still developped the FiM version of MLP. That means she came up with the basics for the cartoon world, the first few characters, the art style and basic character designs, she also oversaw other artists. She worked with a pre-existing thing, that doesn't mean she was a slacker. Extremes like that are nonsensical.

[Taffeta]

I dunno if this is unpopular or not but for me Lauren is the creator of the character bible for FIM. That's basically she was given the brief by Hasbro, wrote the characters with their ideas and intentions in mind, added her own aspect to it, but other writers on the show may have deviated away from that intention.

I see her like Christy Marx from Jem, who also stayed in touch with fans, was the main creator of the Jem character bible. Albeit I feel like Christy is a different kind of person.

Lauren's a spoke in the wheel of FIM, but it's an important spoke. However she has zero relationship to any older pony gen except as a fan growing up with them, and that's the part some FIM fans don't recognise.

I don't really like her contributions to MLP, but they are real and they are there.

[MJNSEIFER]

A lot of fans have spun her leaving into evil guy Hasbro trying to meddle with her ~vision and she quitting in tears. When in fact she left to work on her husband's Disney show and could have stayed at Hasbro if she would have wanted to.

Wow, I never knew that was the reason (said show is actually pretty decent from what I've seen, and definitely seems like something Craig would create) - I honestly thought that she did leave due to creative differences, though not as extreme as Hasbro bullying her or anything like that.  I'm sure I read that she felt messed around at times, like they'd tell her to do one thing (make the pony who became Trixie female) and later insist on something that contradicted that (the sudden inclusion of Pipsqueak in an episode where he didn't exist - the overall gist of it being "First you act like I can't have too many boy characters, and now you force in a boy character?") though it could have been corrupted and taken out of context - there was a lot of hearsay when it came to Lauren from what I saw.

oh man the crediting-Lauren-for-PPG thing drove me up the wall, I'm glad I don't see that any more. I mean I'm not saying she didn't do some great work on it, but sheesh!

Yeah, that annoyed me as well (albeit for different reasons), even Lauren herself kept insisting it was Craig's show, and not hers.  I mean, at least with Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, which also had this mistake attached to it, it made some level of sense, because I think Lauren was involved from the beginning, but she wasn't even one of the original people for Powerpuff Girls - she joined later on.

She developped FiM for TV, which is not quite the same as creator. She did not create MLP.
However, she still developped the FiM version of MLP. That means she came up with the basics for the cartoon world, the first few characters, the art style and basic character designs, she also oversaw other artists. She worked with a pre-existing thing, that doesn't mean she was a slacker. Extremes like that are nonsensical.

Assuming I have read the first part of this correctly, I promise I am aware that she didn't create the entire My Little Pony franchise, just the G4 cartoon.

I'm sure that what you say is a very fair and accurate description of what she did. 

[Carrehz]

yeah I don't mind it with FHFIF, because a) my impression is that she had more involvement with that than PPG and b) the finale itself said "Thanks for watching! - Craig and Lauren".

(Wander is a great show btw, y'all should totally watch it.)

Moving a bit back more on-topic, I guess I just don't get the "they went away from Lauren's ~vision~!" thing x) That's what happens in shows! All the writers will, naturally, have their own opinions and things are gonna deviate from "the original plan", especially if the original creator (or developer in this situation, or whatever word you want to use) leaves the show before it's finished. That's what I was trying to say before ^^ Dunno if I worded it right earlier.

I think Taffeta put it well. I have nothing against Faust! I respect her. But to me she's on the same level as, say, George Arthur Bloom or any of the other G1 writers. Makes me uncomfortable when people put creators (or anyone!) up on a huge pedestal.

[brightberry]

I just assumed they carried on the series after she left... I didn't think that she really had a plan for 9 seasons?  Or anybody did.  That's such a long time. 

[freezestime]

Wow, I've learnt a lot. All this info/perspectives is appreciated!

[freezestime]

When I first got interested in the older generations of MLP, I thought Lickety split was blonde and although I know know it's supposed to be pink, I still think she would look nice with blonde hair.

[Zapper]

Moving a bit back more on-topic, I guess I just don't get the "they went away from Lauren's ~vision~!" thing x) That's what happens in shows! All the writers will, naturally, have their own opinions and things are gonna deviate from "the original plan", especially if the original creator (or developer in this situation, or whatever word you want to use) leaves the show before it's finished.

Ecactly. I think some fans view(ed) Lauren as an author of a story who was bought out by Hasbro since she has talked about how the inspiration for FiM came from playing with her G1 childhood ponies.
This can lead to people feeling sorry for and identify with her, "she just wanted to bring her childhood to the screen! Hasbro wouldn't let her! She had to make Rarity a fashionista and she had to include this and that!"

But the truth is she was hired by Hasbro to work with their product and that's what she did.

Post Merge: September 01, 2019, 06:48:33 PM

A lot of fans have spun her leaving into evil guy Hasbro trying to meddle with her ~vision and she quitting in tears. When in fact she left to work on her husband's Disney show and could have stayed at Hasbro if she would have wanted to.

Wow, I never knew that was the reason (said show is actually pretty decent from what I've seen, and definitely seems like something Craig would create) - I honestly thought that she did leave due to creative differences, though not as extreme as Hasbro bullying her or anything like that.  I'm sure I read that she felt messed around at times, like they'd tell her to do one thing (make the pony who became Trixie female) and later insist on something that contradicted that (the sudden inclusion of Pipsqueak in an episode where he didn't exist - the overall gist of it being "First you act like I can't have too many boy characters, and now you force in a boy character?") though it could have been corrupted and taken out of context - there was a lot of hearsay when it came to Lauren from what I saw.

It could have been both. But as far as I know she wasn't forced to quit and it wasn't in bad blood either since she wanted to work on Wander despite FiM.

Compare working with your life psrtner to working with several "strangers" - surely your life partner would grant you more artistic freedoms.
It was the best decision if she wanted mire creative control.

It's just that lack of creative control is sometimes a given. Especially when your show is supposed to sell toys.
As someone who works with kids media (allthough not cartoons) I get this all. the. time.
People are always thinking of the target audience first and your artistic vision second.

Walking away is always possible if you're not desperately hurting for money. And I am sure Lauren Faust earns more than me AND lives in a double income household
So I am in general a little less inclined to defend artists who get hired by a large company like Hasbro and then can't do 100% what they want.
My thoughts go straight to "ok so you obviously didn't need that money. Good on you! You went straight to your next job. Not everyone can have that! It's a good position to be in".

Of course it's fun to speculate and go "what would Lauren have done?" but I am also asking myself questions like "what if rabid bronies never influenced the show?" It would have been different. Would it have been better? Maybe?

Maybe Lauren's version of the princesses would have been different. But better? She would have still been under Hasbro and they wanted to sell toys.
It seems like she enjoyed working that way because she signed onto Mattel a few years later to make teenage fashion dolls out of female DC characters. She works again with a pre-existing property to make toys.

[Leave a Whisper]

Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, I've suddenly come to realize that the secondary sticky glue that holds fandoms together is ceaseless whining. This is goes for every fanbase for the record, not just ours.

[SpacePinto]

I don't think the pre-G4 pony fanbase whines that much...

[freezestime]

I don't think the pre-G4 pony fanbase whines that much...

Yeah, I've never heard of toxicity among fans of G3. I can bet there'd be certain toxic people who liked it though.

Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.

[Taffeta]

I don't think the pre-G4 pony fanbase whines that much...

We got over the worst of our whining with g2 and the shadows stuff 20 years ago. Now we just old people grumble about how things were better in our day...

[freezestime]

I don't think the pre-G4 pony fanbase whines that much...

We got over the worst of our whining with g2 and the shadows stuff 20 years ago. Now we just old people grumble about how things were better in our day...

Whining with G2?