Season 9 Officially the Last Season of FiM (SPOILERS!)

[Sora]

Like others have said, I'm glad the show is finally ending. Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy it! But I also started to grow tired of the forced friendship messages among other things. Anyone remember how Pinkie Pie basically harassed Cranky until she could find something to make him like her?

...And that's in LONDON. Says everything, doesn't it.

I worked for Entertainer over the Christmas period, and I'm pretty sure they just order the exact same items for all of their stores. We had so many boxes of those blasted Cheese Sandwich sets... They really filled up the back shelves.

[StarSwirl05]

FiM hasn't even been successful since 2014 and the end of Season 4.  If you look at the ratings, it's been in freefall ever since.  The movie was supposed to do $60M in North America and $100M globally.  The actual numbers were $21M and $60M respectively.  And don't throw that $6.5M budget number at me. 

I wasn't aware it did that badly. I thought the 65 mil was how much it actually earned. Where did you find this out if I may ask?

[Ponyfan]

I am ready for a completely new MLP generation also. FIM has always been hit or miss for me anyway and if the next MLP is just the same characters with some minor changes I'm pretty sure I won't be buying the toys or have much interest in the show. I'm ready for Twilight and her friends to retire.


One the episodes that I really disliked was the one that introduced the yaks. The ponies tried to make them feel at home and the yaks destroyed everything and then Pinkie said that they shouldn't try to make the yaks feel comfortable in a new place but should show them what was unique about Ponyville. I think that's a terrible message because if I were a guest at someone's house I'd want them to make me feel at home.



Ponyfan

[Leave a Whisper]

FiM hasn't even been successful since 2014 and the end of Season 4.  If you look at the ratings, it's been in freefall ever since.  The movie was supposed to do $60M in North America and $100M globally.  The actual numbers were $21M and $60M respectively.  And don't throw that $6.5M budget number at me.  That's how much they're willing to admit they spent.  All those big names, buying completely new technology that as of yet seems to be only have been used on this movie, and year in development hell screams a lot of hidden costs.  Especially when they released those forecast numbers.  And all this wouldn't mean much for previous generations that did not depend on their media that much, but it's fatal to Friendship is Magic which has depended on it media.

I've seen the hodgepodge of pony stuff in the toy isle.  I haven't taken a close look, but I wouldn't be all surprised if it was like when Taffeta describes.

I've said this so many times.  This has Transformers Generation 2 written all over it.  These characters will not capture the attention of people who weren't interested to begin with and the changes will alienate the people already here.  This business plan has already failed Hasbro and I don't know why they're trying it again 30 years later.

As for the two events you're thinking of, they are different episodes.  The buffalo one was first season and the griffin one was from season five.  However, how friendship has mutated in this show is terrifying.  And there are plenty of other sins throughout its run.

And they do focus on the most annoying characters.  I know Twilight, Pinkie, and Rainbow are the most dominant personalities, but they're also the most obnoxious.

Sadly, I think they meta episode we got last year where the characters essentially plugged their ears and yelled "nah, nah, nah" in the face of critics illustrates how this staff views criticism of their work.  Their you know what doesn't stink as far as they're concerned.  So everything we're worried about will likely come to pass because they think it's good and cannot be convinced otherwise.  The only that will convince them is Hasbro saying "No".

But they're bringing in a new team right? So wouldn't mane six ad naseum 2.0 be solely the fault of hasbro when/if it flops.

[Al-1701]

FiM hasn't even been successful since 2014 and the end of Season 4.  If you look at the ratings, it's been in freefall ever since.  The movie was supposed to do $60M in North America and $100M globally.  The actual numbers were $21M and $60M respectively.  And don't throw that $6.5M budget number at me. 

I wasn't aware it did that badly. I thought the 65 mil was how much it actually earned. Where did you find this out if I may ask?

Box Office Mojo for the movie.  The Wikipedia page keeps track of the show's ratings through a site that tracks the Top 150 programs for a given time slot.  Every episode of Season 4 hit the Top 150, none of Season 8 did.

Anyway, I thought it was leaked that Meghan McCarthy was still going to be in charge of the new series.  Which has me worried since a lot of the toxic messaging has come at her direction.  And ultimately it is Hasbro that would be the ones saying just do the Main Six again.  Which again makes me wonder if the people in Rhode Island have forgotten what a complete failure Transformers Generation 2 was.

[Zapper]

I feel like we're never going to lose Pinkie Pie now.

I feel like Pinkie has become for MLP what Bumblebee has become for Transformers. She is standing out because of her color scheme and she is supposed to be the character kids should relate and gravitade towards. Just like Bumblebee her character changed but visually she stayed looking similar to the older designs.

I never liked Pinkie in G3 as a character. She was just the boss of everyone and didn't even have good leadership skills (justice for Kimono).
Pinkie in G4 could have worked for me if not for the randoooom/4thwall breaking outbursts and insanely high pitched voice. She had moments when she was handled better. Like the episodes with her sister that were all about Pinkie being more thoughtful of others.
When she was just a loud meme machine I wanted to shoot her out of that cannon and into the sun. She just isn't a good kid appeal character, imo. Because she makes kids hyper and nervous. Witnessing little kids mimic Pinkie Pie was one of the worst babysitting experiences of my life

But yeah, she is not going anywhere. So I am hoping for a character overhaul with a slight tweak in coloration. She needs something that breaks up all that pink on pink. Like a strand of hair that is a different color.

Spoiler

I also think being a pegasus would fit her better and I loved that redesign with the feathery tail. There she could be all full of energy without constantly shooting a cannon or talking to the camera. Instead she could be flying around doing tricks and Rainbow Dash could finally be more of a daredevil than a show-off. Just tone down all of their annoying traits and diversify their characters instead of doing yet again these Lauren Faust stereotypes.
When you look at Lauren's resumee it's all repeats of character tropes she likes. The loud girly one without braincells,  the loyal tomboy who is also rude for no reason (us soft spoken tomboys do exist ), the soft spoken nature lover who can't stand up for herself because she is just too feminine. Make it end.

[Ponyfan]

Most of the Mane 6 can annoy me at times although Pinkie gets on my nerves pretty easily especially when most of the episode is her making silly faces for no reason or saying completely random things all the time.  It stopped being funny a long time ago. Twilight also gets to me when she makes a friendship mistake because she is supposed to be the best pony at friendship yet there are times when she judges another character too harshly or is too lenient (Starlight Glimmer) so it's hard for me to completely believe that Twilight is really as good at friendship as the show wants us to think.

One thing I didn't like was reforming Diamond Tiara. I liked that she was a bully to the CMC because I felt that it was realistic. Not everyone you meet is going to like you and just "being nice until the bully is your friend" doesn't always work.


Ponyfan

[Taffeta]

It's as if FIM are scared to present the possibility that you might just not be able to make friends with someone, because reasons. It's trying to force down the throats of kids the idea that YOU CAN befriend everyone! So the message beneath that is that if someone won't be your friend after you have tried to befriend them, there's something wrong with you :/

I just find the whole thing obnoxious. But I could deal with obnoxious. It's the politically dodgy sentiments that stink of colonising another country with your idea mantra that I have problems with. That and Dash's animal cruelty episode. Because making animals race around for you (animals as forced entertainment?) to prove they are worthy of YOU when you can't even show kindness to them bothers me. But what bothers me more is that the one she abuses most keeps coming back for more and insists on forging a long term relationship with her as her pet/companion/whatever. So now we have encouraging kids to continue an abusive friendship with someone who bullies them, but then takes advantage of them when they're needed. Not cool. Not cool.

Pinkie looked amazing as one of the Rainbow Rocks ponies. I have that Pinkie here in London with me. I found her at the carboot sale. She has a mix of colours in her mane and patterns on her body other than just her symbol. It makes her look like not-pinkie. It makes her look presentable and interesting.

[MJNSEIFER]

Spoiler

When you look at Lauren's resumee it's all repeats of character tropes she likes. The loud girly one without braincells,  the loyal tomboy who is also rude for no reason (us soft spoken tomboys do exist ), the soft spoken nature lover who can't stand up for herself because she is just too feminine. Make it end.

Spoiler

The loud girly one had brain cells, though - she was actually very intelligent, but that was easily missed because of her goofy fun-loving personality, and that character trait happened when Lauren was running the show.

I'm not doubting that Lauren sticks to character traits she likes, because I'm sure a lot of writers at least go through a phase of doing that (I will try to have as many different character types as I can, but there are bound to be ones I like, and I can already think of one), but can you give other examples?  The only other characters of Lauren's I can think of are The Galaxy Girls - and they don't have a show yet.

[Zapper]

One thing I didn't like was reforming Diamond Tiara. I liked that she was a bully to the CMC because I felt that it was realistic. Not everyone you meet is going to like you and just "being nice until the bully is your friend" doesn't always work.

I think DT was one of the better reformations because it felt more organic. She wasn't healed by friendship, she was finally ditched by her BFF/minion and was shown that nobody likes her.
What I thought was too over the top was the fact we were shown a "reason" why she bullies others. Her parents raised her that way by telling her she was better than everyone else.
I get that FiM is for kids by the end of the day, but DT was made out to be too much of a victim.

I guess because she was popular with the fandom. Let's face it, that's why Discord and Starlight Glimmer were brought back and redeemed.
I love my little dictator Starlight, but I won't act like the writers had always intended for her to come back one season later and be a 7th main character If they say so I won't believe them.

Post Merge: February 23, 2019, 10:40:59 AM

Spoiler

When you look at Lauren's resumee it's all repeats of character tropes she likes. The loud girly one without braincells,  the loyal tomboy who is also rude for no reason (us soft spoken tomboys do exist ), the soft spoken nature lover who can't stand up for herself because she is just too feminine. Make it end.

Spoiler

The loud girly one had brain cells, though - she was actually very intelligent, but that was easily missed because of her goofy fun-loving personality, and that character trait happened when Lauren was running the show.

I'm not doubting that Lauren sticks to character traits she likes, because I'm sure a lot of writers at least go through a phase of doing that (I will try to have as many different character types as I can, but there are bound to be ones I like, and I can already think of one), but can you give other examples?  The only other characters of Lauren's I can think of are The Galaxy Girls - and they don't have a show yet.

The Galaxy Girls are what FiM became. She couldn't get anyone to pick up the property. They had a small run of fabric dolls in the US but that was it.
She used a few of her GG characters and put them onto the ponies. You can go to their website if it's still running and see the character blurps. Like Pluto is 1/1 Rainbow Dash. For some reason tomboy + brash/rude + loyal is a thing with her.

Then there is the new incarnation for DC Superhero Girls were Barbara Gordon was changed into Pinkie Pie (actually that started with the SBFF shorts. And Supergirl is once again Rainbow Dash/Pluto). DCSHG Batgirl has more of the smarts we could see in S1 Pinkie Pie.

I just wish for G5 to broaden these Lauren Faust basics. I know she didn't create the tropes themselves, but she sticks with them. And the rest was Hasbro's doing, like making Rarity a fashionista.
If there is one girl trope Lauren does not stick to it's the fashion obsession. And I like that.

So yeah, I also hope G5 won't have a fashionista but that won't happen because they need a reason for new outfits all the time
So hopefully it can be a secondary character and Rarity can have another business.
Her being business oriented was interesting. But I would also welcome geologist Rarity. AJ can be the one with the cider juice business

[tailrustedtealeaf]

Zapper, thank you for typing out what I wanted to say but was unsure of.  I wish I had more to add but it makes her work feel very...whats the word...samey? Like, even her work on the DC superhero girls made me go "Ok, that's the Pinkie Pie".

[Zapper]

Zapper, thank you for typing out what I wanted to say but was unsure of.  I wish I had more to add but it makes her work feel very...whats the word...samey? Like, even her work on the DC superhero girls made me go "Ok, that's the Pinkie Pie".

Sometimes people think I just want to bash her but I really just don't like the Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and RD stereotypes and want them altered for G5. That's all.
I love Lauren's art style but not so much her writing. Like the first DCSHG short was exactly like one episode of SBFF. She just likes repeats

[Leave a Whisper]

Why would she do that to DC Girls when most of those characters are decades old and well established?   

[Al-1701]

Why would she do that to DC Girls when most of those characters are decades old and well established?   

Because she can.

And Faust was far from baseless from some really bad decisions in FiM's early days.  Dragon Quest (aka the episode that condoned racism) was encouraged by her.  She wanted it to be a message about the ridicule males get for liking typically feminine things.  However, because they conflated gender to race, the condemnation of the dragons comes off as racism.  The coda was essentially Spike is so lucky to be raised civilized ponies and not that race of brutes.  This is made all the worse that G1 already did this episode with Spike's Search, only the dragons were much more deplorable (burning and robbing a village in Spike's Search compared to what was little more than roughhousing in Dragon Quest), the G1 ponies actually put the dragons in their place compared to the supposedly stronger G4 ponies running from teens, and most importantly Spike's Search made sure to say the gang of bandits Spike ran into shouldn't be cast as an example of all dragons.

I don't know who decided Equestria's origins should be a boogeyman story, but basing their unification on fear of a mutual threat really hurt the feel of the show.  And both these episodes were penned by Merriwether Williams whom I consider the worst hire for this series (not that she's bad but didn't fit the series).

I think the Cozy Glow/Neighsay resolutions really broke what was left of this series' integrity.  An openly racist politician put in a much higher position than he ever should have been allowed is reformed, but a literal child is put in Hell?  What?  Seriously what?

[StarSwirl05]

I think the Cozy Glow/Neighsay resolutions really broke what was left of this series' integrity.  An openly racist politician put in a much higher position than he ever should have been allowed is reformed, but a literal child is put in Hell?  What?  Seriously what?

They didn't even explain how the whole link between Cozy and Tirek got started. It was just already established. Seems that's what the show's been about lately. Things are just "happening" because "reasons"